On 6 September 2023, the European Commission designated for the first time, six gatekeepers (i.e., Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft) as having gatekeeper status under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In particular, in accordance with the EU Commission decisions, 22 core platform services provided by these firms fall under the scope of the DMA application. This implies the six gatekeepers have time until March 2024 to comply with the DMA obligations in relation to the designated core platform services.

The DMA represents a radical shift from the traditional antitrust enforcement to sector regulation of digital markets. EU policymakers have opted for such a change due to the perception that digital markets tend ‘to tip’ because of large entry barriers, such as winner-takes-all dynamics, network effects, limited multihoming and data portability. According to its Preamble, the DMA aims at fostering both ‘fairness’ and ‘contestability’ in digital markets. By imposing asymmetric regulation on a limited number of digital platforms having a perceived entrenched market power, the DMA aims at fostering both inter-platform as well as intra-platform competition. In accordance with the DMA contestability goals, end and business users could benefit from a broader choice of digital services beyond those ones provided by the gatekeepers.

Against this backdrop, this webinar will delve into a crucial aspect of the DMA: that of enabling end users to make meaningful decisions in the digital era. It also aims at discussing the meaning of ‘contestability’ within the EU Digital Markets Act, as well as its implications for end and business users’ choice of core platform services. This session represents a follow-up of the CDS 2023 Autumn Conference (held on 19-20 October 2023 at the EUI campus in Florence).