The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) : A Summary

On December 15, 2020, the European Commission released a proposal for a Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA targets so-called 'gatekeepers': large digital platforms that have become important gateways for business users and end users. The DMA imposes on gatekeepers a set of obligations amounting to prohibitions of commonplace digital platform practices. It is hard to understate the importance of the Commission's initiative. The DMA, together with its sister proposal for a Digital Services Act, amounts to the most significant overhaul of the digital regulatory landscape to date. A provisional political agreement on the DMA text was reached between the Commission, the Parliament and the Council on March 24, 2022. On May 11, 2022, the Council’s Permanent Representatives Committee approved the text, which must now also be approved by the Parliament before entering into force. This summary is a four-page overview of this latest DMA version. Part I covers the scope of the DMA, which includes both the list of covered platform services and the gatekeeper designation process. Part II presents an overview of all the DMA obligations together with examples. Part III covers the compliance process and, finally, Part IV covers the enforcement mechanisms on which the DMA is built