EU: Public consultation about the Digital Markets Act

 

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is the European Union’s legislation designed to ensure greater fairness and contestability within the digital sector. Pursuant to the DMA, the largest digital platforms — such as online search engines, application stores, and messaging services — are required to comply with a series of obligations and prohibitions once they have been formally designated by the European Commission as a “gatekeeper.”

Under the provisions of the DMA, the European Commission is required to conduct a review of the Regulation by 3 May 2026, and thereafter every three years, with the purpose of assessing the overall effectiveness of the DMA. The central objective of the review is to evaluate the extent to which the DMA is contributing to the goal of creating contestable and fair markets. This evaluation includes an assessment of its impact on:

• Business users, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with respect to the removal of barriers to market entry and opportunities for expansion; and
• End users, notably in terms of access to higher quality services offered at more competitive prices.

The review must further consider whether additional measures are required to guarantee the continued effectiveness of the DMA, especially in light of new and emerging challenges such as the deployment and expansion of AI-powered services.

In carrying out the review, the Commission will take into account its broader policy objectives on regulatory simplification. Although the DMA imposes only very limited reporting obligations — and those solely upon companies designated as gatekeepers — the review will also examine whether there is scope for introducing targeted simplifications that could further reduce administrative burdens. At the same time, the review must recognize that the obligations under the DMA have only recently become applicable to designated gatekeepers, and as a result, the amount of data currently available for analysis remains limited.

The review will provide both qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding the extent to which the DMA has facilitated progress towards its principal objectives of establishing contestable and fair digital markets, bearing in mind that the Regulation has only been in effect for a relatively short period of time. More specifically, the review will examine the application of the DMA to date, as well as its observable effects on market dynamics and users, with a particular focus on business users.

The review must also determine whether the DMA continues to be fit for purpose, remains relevant, and is effectively addressing the issues it was designed to resolve, including the lack of contestability and competition in platform markets, unfair practices by gatekeepers toward business users, and the legal uncertainty experienced by market participants. In this regard, the review will also evaluate whether there is a need to make adjustments to the list of core platform services set out in Article 2(2), to the obligations contained in Articles 5, 6, and 7, as well as to the mechanisms for their enforcement.

The feedback can be given until the 23 September 2025.