Digital Markets Act
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) aims to ensure fair competition between digital platforms, regardless of their size, to increase choice for consumers and to promote new opportunities for small businesses.
What is the Digital Markets Act?
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) focuses on ensuring a level playing field for all digital companies, regardless of their size.
The DMA aims to guarantee a competitive and fair digital sector.
Objectives
Ban unfair practices by the online platforms holding the biggest share of the market.
Enable business users to offer consumers more choice.
Provide better services and fairer prices for consumers.
Impose clear rights and obligations on large online platforms.
Promote innovation and a fairer online platform environment for technology start-ups.
The DMA sets clear rules for big platforms, 'gatekeepers', providing so-called 'core platform services', to make sure that they do not abuse their position, for instance, by favouring their own products or preventing users from installing external apps.
The EU adopted the DMA in September 2022. It entered into force on 1 November 2022 and became applicable on 2 May 2023.
The DMA is part of the EU's digital services package, which also includes the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Both the DMA and the DSA seek to protect users from unfair practices, while supporting innovation in the digital economy.
Digital Services Act
Gatekeepers
To be considered a gatekeeper, a digital platform must:
- either have had an annual turnover within the European Union of at least €7.5 billion in the past three years or have a market valuation of at least €75 billion
- have at least 45 million monthly end users
- have at least 10 000 business users established in the EU
- control one or more core platform services in at least three member states
Due to their size, gatekeepers enjoy significant advantages over smaller competitors and have a dominant position in the digital market.
Of the 10 000 digital platforms that exist in the EU, just a handful qualify as gatekeepers under the DMA, and most of those are based in the United States.
The European Commission has so far designated seven gatekeepers, providing 23 core platform services:
- Alphabet
- Amazon
- Apple
- Booking
- ByteDance
- Meta
- Microsoft
New obligations for gatekeepers
The DMA sets out a series of rules that gatekeepers must comply with. These rules both prohibit gatekeepers from doing certain things and oblige them to do others.
What gatekeepers are not allowed to do
They cannot rank their own products or services higher than those of other companies.
They cannot prevent developers from using third-party payment platforms for app sales.
They cannot process users' personal data for targeted advertising, unless consent has been granted.
They cannot establish unfair conditions for business users
They cannot pre-install certain software applications or prevent users from easily un-installing them.
They cannot restrict business users of platforms.
What gatekeepers will have to do
They must offer greater choice, such as the choice of certain software on a user's operating system.
They need to ensure that unsubscribing from core platform services is as easy as subscribing.
They have to provide information on the number of users that visit their platforms to determine whether the platform can be identified as a gatekeeper.
They need to give business users access to their marketing or advertising performance data on the platform.
They must inform the European Commission of any acquisitions and mergers.
They have to ensure that the basic functionalities of instant messaging services are interoperable, i.e., users must be able to send messages, voice messages or files.
What happens if gatekeepers do not comply with the rules?
When a large online company has been identified as a gatekeeper, it has to comply with the rules of the DMA within six months.
If a gatekeeper violates the rules laid down in the DMA, it risks a fine of up to 10% of its total worldwide turnover. For a repeat offence, a fine of up to 20% of its worldwide turnover may be imposed.
If a gatekeeper systematically fails to comply with the DMA, i.e. it violates the rules at least three times in eight years, the European Commission can open a market investigation and, if necessary, impose behavioural or structural remedies.
Benefits of the Digital Markets Act
Fair competition of digital services is key to ensuring that companies and consumers can all benefit in the same way from digital opportunities.
By establishing a set of rules for large online platforms, the DMA makes it easier for smaller companies and start-ups to enter the digital market, innovate and compete.
By increasing choice, consumers also benefit from lower prices and higher-quality services.
E-commerce in the EU
Last review: 20 November 2025