Extract

1. Introduction

Starting 7 March 2024, the European Union (EU) will regulate numerous platform services offered by Big Tech companies under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).1 Gatekeepers, as designated by the Commission,2 must comply with an extensive set of obligations. These rules aim to foster contestability and fairness in digital markets, thus enhancing both choice and innovation.

The DMA is often viewed through a retrospective lens, due to an undeniable continuity between the enforcement of competition laws against abuses of dominant positions and the obligations included in this new approach to ex-ante regulation. Consider, for instance, the anti-steering provision of Article 5(4) of the DMA, which obliges gatekeepers to allow business users of their core platform services to advertise to end users the existence of alternative subscription and billing mechanisms. Just days prior to the compliance deadline for the first six designated gatekeepers, the Commission issued an infringement decision to Apple for abusing its dominant position, specifically in relation to anti-steering practices in its App Store—practices now also prohibited by the DMA.3

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