European Commissioner: legislation against the power of tech giants will come into force in a year

According to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the Digital Markets Act will come into force next year in the spring. According to her, the legislation, which limits the power of large tech companies, would only come into force next fall.

Vestager announced that the DMA will take effect next year in a speech. “The DMA goes into effect next spring and we are getting ready to enforce as soon as the first reports come in,” said Vestager.

The time until next spring is needed for preparations, she says in her speech at the International Competition Network meeting in Berlin. “It’s about hiring staff and preparing IT systems. It’s also about creating legal texts based on procedures and forms to make reports. Our teams are currently busy with the preparations and we hope to see the new structures in place soon to present.”

Only large tech companies will be affected by the Digital Markets Act. Earlier this spring, the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission reached an agreement on the rules that should limit the market power of a few large tech companies.

For example, chat services of large companies must have a method of exchanging messages, so that they cannot remain closed services. In addition, the European Parliament has stipulated that the gatekeepers may only combine users’ personal data for targeted advertising after explicit consent from that user. Operating systems from tech giants must also give users a choice in their choice of browsers, voice assistants and search engines.

The Digital Markets Act has not yet been fully passed. The European Parliament and the Council have yet to formally approve the Digital Markets Act. The legislation goes hand in hand with the Digital Services Act. The difference is that the DSA covers many more online companies, while the DMA focuses only on the largest tech companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google.