Proposals on How to Improve the Digital Markets Act

Abstract

This is a policy paper with comments for an improvement of the Digital Markets Act that had been proposed by the European Commission in December 2020. The paper was prepared for an information session of the IMCO Committee of the European Parliament on 19 February 2021. We propose to have a more principled approach to gatekeeper regulation with three core principles: contestability of markets, fairness of intermediation, and independence of decision-making. We also discuss the possibilities to update obligations under the DMA.

A further issue in the paper is enforcement. We advocate a stronger integration of national authorities and private parties in enforcement. In particular, there should be a branch for enforcement that is independent from the European Commission's own activities.

Other proposals relate to speed enforcement, structural remedies, the relation with national law and merger control.

Keywords: Digital Markets Act, platform regulation, digital gatekeepers, competition law, fairness

JEL Classification: K21, K23, L4