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How does current DMA enforcement affect digital market competition?

Publishing date
05 May 2025
Authors
Fiona M. Scott Morton
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The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was designed to make Europe's digital markets fairer and more contestable. The markets covered by the legislation include mobile operating systems, personal social networks, video sharing and e-commerce platforms. Under the act, the EU has designated seven ‘gatekeepers’, platforms that dominate the digital market and fit three criteria. These are Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, BHI, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.

While platforms were required to comply with the rules by 2024, little significant change has occurred to date. For example, the legislation requires that mobile operating systems permit rival app stores, rival digital wallets and third-party accessories to connect to the operating system in the same way that the gatekeeper's own products connect. Apple has yet to comply. Similarly, the legislation requires platforms that collect personal data to offer an equivalent service without processing personal data and without a fee. Meta has yet to comply.

Both companies were fined earlier this month for non-compliance after a one-year investigation. However, the fines were relatively small – €500 million for Apple, and €200 million for Meta.

One could justify the low fines by arguing that the European Commission is trying to encourage compliance rather than raise revenue. That is a laudable goal, but how much longer will developers in the EU have to wait before they are able to launch functional accessories, wallets and app stores that can compete for the business of end consumers?

It is not yet clear that enforcement of the DMA will be strong enough to open these markets. This is concerning, as both business users and end consumers would benefit from new markets and more vigorous competition. Furthermore, as Europe seeks to encourage innovation and grow its own digital platforms, effective enforcement of the DMA would be an obvious and immediate step towards that goal.

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About the authors

  • Fiona M. Scott Morton

    Fiona M. Scott Morton is a Senior fellow at Bruegel and the Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics at the Yale University School of Management.  Her field of economics is industrial organization and within this field she focuses on empirical studies of competition. The topics of her current research are the economics of competition enforcement and competition in healthcare markets. From 2011-12 Professor Scott Morton served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis (Chief Economist) at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she helped enforce the nation’s antitrust laws. She frequently presents to, and advises, government agencies tasked with enforcing competition law. At Yale SOM she teaches courses in the area of competitive strategy and competition economics. She served as Associate Dean from 2007-10 and has won the School’s teaching award three times. She founded and directs the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, a vehicle to provide more competition policy programming to Yale students and the wider competition community. Professor Scott Morton holds a BA from Yale and a PhD from MIT, both in Economics.

Language
English

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