The European Digital Markets Act: A Revolution Grounded on Traditions

Key Points:

• The proposed DMA is a lost child of competition law and sits in a difficult epistemological position because it does not rest on a set of reasonably well articulated policy goals as with sector-specific regulation nor it benefits from experience and practice in individual cases as with competition law.
• The proposed DMA aims to support sustaining innovation by the users of Core Platform Services, which is a wise policy choice, innovation by frontal competitors wanting to displace the existing gate-keepers with existing digital services and disruptive innovation by newcomers wanting to displace gatekeepers with new digital services.
• It is also appropriate to favour behavioural remedies over structural remedies; this said the proposal could have looked beyond the traditional remedial catalogue of competition law such as interoperability-interconnection and governance remedies inspired by standardization policy.
• It is understandable that the proposed DMA relies on rigid rules to ease compliance and enforcement, but they will need to be complemented by standards to increase regulatory resilience.

ESO Records

Proposal for a Regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act) https://www.europeansources.info/record/proposal-for-a-regulation-on-contestable-and-fair-markets-in-the-digital-sector-digital-markets-act/

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