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

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

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

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

Only large tech companies will have to deal with 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 some large tech companies.

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

The Digital Markets Act is not yet 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 is about many more online companies, while the DMA only focuses on the biggest tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google.