The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is an EU regulation that aims at opening up opportunities for innovation in the digital sector in Europe. For this purpose, it provides for obligations on large digital platforms, known as “gatekeepers”, for the benefit of business users and consumers. National competition authorities have important powers to support the European Commission’s enforcement. They can receive complaints and launch preliminary investigations before passing the relevant information to the European Commission for further action. The national competition authorities may also support the European Commission in monitoring compliance and carrying out enforcement actions.
The DMA is still relatively unknown among the vast majority of sectors and consumers.
Therefore, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) published in December 2024 a short guide about the DMA to inform tech challengers about the DMA in a pragmatic form.
The guide is divided into five sections: (i) ‘What is the DMA?’, (ii) ‘How does the DMA work in practice?’, (iii) ‘What are the opportunities offered by the DMA?’, (iv) ‘How does the DMA help business users bring innovation to the market?’ and (v) ‘How is the DMA applied and enforced?’.
In the short guide, the BCA explains the notion of “gatekeepers providing a core platform service” and indicates which undertakings have been designated as gatekeepers to date. The guide also explains the division of competences between the European Commission, the national competition authorities and the national courts. Lastly, the guide provides an overview of beneficial changes that the DMA has achieved.
The DMA guide is available on the following link.
