The EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA) officially came into force on 1 November, seven months after being approved by the European Parliament.

The law was initially proposed by the European Commission in December 2020, and gives the bloc unprecedented power to rein in BigTech giants such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.

In essence, the DMA defines large online platforms as ‘gatekeepers’ that serve as an access point between consumers and business users. This elevated position, the EU said, gives the platform operators power to act as ‘private rule makers’ and creates a bottleneck in the digital economy.

The DMA provides three main criteria for being a gatekeeper. The first is having an annual turnover in the EEA that is above a certain threshold; the second is providing a core platform service to more than 45 million monthly active end users in the EU; and the third is an ‘entrenched and durable position’ where the company has met the second criterion during the past three years.

Such companies will be provided with a range of ‘do’s and don’ts’ that they must comply with. Violations could see companies fined up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover.

With the DMA now in place, rules will start to apply from 2 May, 2023. Gatekeepers will have to notify their core platform services to the commission if they meet the thresholds by 3 July 2023.

Commenting on the official implementation of the DMA, Thierry Breton, commissioner for Internal Market at the EU, said: “It is time for gatekeepers to be designated and to comply with the rules. The Commission is already actively engaging with potential gatekeepers to ensure that compliance with the new rules starts from day one. We will also not shy away from using our enforcement powers should there be indications that obligations and prohibitions are not respected.”

While the DMA has ambitions to rein in BigTech, critics of the rule have said that the 80 official-strong task force is not large enough to adequately enforce and implement the regulation.

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