The DMA became fully applicable on 2 May 2023, having come into force on 2 November 2022.

The EU Commission describes the DMA as aiming to ensure that there are contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. The Commission explains that the DMA defines “gatekeepers” as those large online platforms that provide a “gateway” between business users and consumers, whose position gives them the power to act as a private rule maker and thus create a bottleneck in the digital economy. To address these issues, the DMA defines a series of specific obligations that gatekeepers need to respect, including prohibiting them from engaging in certain behaviours in a list of dos and don’ts.

Now that the DMA applies, potential gatekeepers that meet the quantitative thresholds have until 3 July to notify their core platform services to the Commission. The Commission will then have 45 working days (until 6 September 2023) to decide whether the company meets the thresholds and to designate gatekeepers. Following their designation, gatekeepers will have six months (i.e. until 6 March 2024) to comply with the requirements in the DMA. To read the Commission’s news release in full, click here.