Open letter to support the Digital Markets Act
Our world today is undeniably digital. The digital markets are changing the consumer experience and offering market access to some of the world’s most innovative businesses. However, the potential of these markets is being artificially constrained by a few dominant online gatekeepers that are unfairly limiting innovation and competition. In 2020, the European Commission published two pieces of legislation that will update the rules for digital companies in Europe: a Digital Services and a Digital Markets Act. In a nutshell, the Digital Services Act (DSA) focuses on illegal content, while the Digital Markets Act (DMA) promises to tackle the dominance of large gatekeeper platforms like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft (GAFAM).
One of DIGITAL SME’s missions is to support SMEs, including app developers, in their quest to be treated fairly by large gatekeeper platforms. Therefore, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance, together with the Coalition for App Fairness and the Coalition for Competitive Digital Markets, have signed an open letter to support the Digital Markets Act.
The Digital Markets Act is set to define fair rules for online markets.
In particular, we support:
– The ex-ante approach of the DMA
– A strong enforcement of DMA in EU
– Common EU-US goals to ensure fair treatment of app developers by app stores
The DMA will ensure fairness for (business) users who depend on important entry points, such as app stores and operating systems, provided by so-called ‘gatekeepers’ (like Google or Apple), to offer and access digital products and services.
If you are an SME and interested in supporting this topic, you can join our Focus Group Fair Digital Markets, Ethical Tech & Interoperability (FG FAIR). More information about our efforts for fair and competitive digital markets can be found here.
