The EU Commission’s Digital Markets Act currently tarobtains Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft, imposing obligations on so-called “gatekeepers” to prevent them from abutilizing their market dominance.
The Commission stated the DMA, which became applicable in May 2023, has improved conditions for businesses and applyrs.
The comments were in a report published on Tuesday, with regulators stateing the DMA has allowed applyrs to transfer their data more easily when switching to rival services and devices, while allowing device buildrs greater interoperability with Big Tech operating systems.
“The DMA was designed to be future-proof and adapt to emerging challenges, for example in AI and cloud,” European Union antitrust chief Teresa Ribera stated in a statement.
Aiming to build AI, cloud services fairer
The Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, stated the aim now was to build cloud services and AI “fairer and more contestable”. It will examine whether certain AI services should be designated as virtual assistant core platform services.
Regulators are now investigating whether Amazon and Microsoft should be labelled gatekeepers for their cloud computing services under the DMA and also whether the legislation can effectively tackle anticompetitive practices in this sector.
Apple criticised the report, stateing it failed to take into account the DMA’s impact on applyr privacy, security and innovation.
It stated the risks to EU applyrs include more exposure to harmful content via alternative distribution, disruption to the seamless experience, sharing of their highly sensitive information with untrusted third parties, and delays in receiving the latest features and technologies available everywhere else.
The Commission stated it would not push Big Tech to build their social networks work with each other despite calls by some companies but will continue to monitor the services.
“There is no clear demand for interoperability between designated social networks,” the EU competition enforcer stated.
It stated it had no plans to alter the criteria applyd to designate companies as DMA gatekeepers nor the list of dos and don’ts for the companies, stateing the existing framework was still fit for purpose.
Pan-European consumer lobbying organisation BEUC urged the Commission to beef up its enforcement especially in new digital areas.
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