Competitive digital markets are online marketplaces where companies of all sizes can offer their products and services, strengthening innovation and increasing consumer choice through robust competition. Competitive digital markets should, therefore, be characterised by the absence of dominant players and providing companies access to the online marketplace based on the merit of their products.
Large gatekeeper platforms dominate the digital space, allowing them to lock-in users in their solutions, which solidifies their market dominance even more. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) offers a historic opportunity to address this issue. Swift and vigorous enforcement would strengthen the EU’s position as a global leader in technology, drive economic growth across the continent, and support a vibrant ecosystem of innovation where businesses of all sizes can compete fairly. With free and fair markets, new businesses will flourish, consumer choice will increase, and Europe will be home to more innovation.
Call for action
It’s time to go beyond non-compliance decisions that deter gatekeepers from disregarding the law.
In light of rapid market developments and technological advancements, the European Commission should not only take decisive action by using all the tools it has available in the DMA, but also look at expanding its scope to avoid the risk of dominance in fundamental technological layers, such as AI and the cloud sector.
Besides relying on competition policy tools, the European Commission and Parliament should promote a dynamic and competitive digital economy in Europe by promoting a comprehensive European Digital Industrial Policy, which provides the continent with the conditions for its own industry to innovate and produce homegrown digital products.
This effort should start by ensuring access to data and computing power to innovative SMEs and tech companies and by promoting public and private companies to build a European technological stack. The latter should emerge to provide an alternative to dominant solutions on the market, provided by foreign hyperscalers, and foster a more competitive digital environment.
Key demands for competitive digital markets:
- An extension of the interoperability provision to all core platform services to improve efficiency for SMEs and make it easier for companies operating in Europe to compete with gatekeepers.
- The introduction of an explicit ban on pre-installed apps and default settings allowing users to choose their own core services such as email, search and messaging apps.
- The widening of the ban on bundling services with operating systems, to also include ancillary services. This, for instance, could ensure that platforms like Android or iOS will no longer be able to force users to sign up for additional Google and Apple products.
For more information, you can visit our joint campaign page competitivedigitalmarkets.eu.
Actions
Open Letters & Position Papers.
With our open letters to the Members of the European Parliament & the Council of the EU, technology firms & the European DIGITAL SME Alliance are joining forces for competitive digital markets in the upcoming Digital Markets Act.
Competition Cases & Policy.
We follow policy developments and competition cases. Already in the past, the European Commission has imposed fines on gatekeepers.
Stories & Events.
Find out more about competition concerns and digital markets in our blog and events and via our working groups.
