The Absurdity Known as the Digital Markets Act
For the past two years, the European Commission has been formulating a series of regulations aimed at curtailing the tech giants in its 27 member states. Last week, the Digital Markets Act reached a finalized draft stage. While additional steps are needed before the end is reached, we are at a point where the major points of contention have been determined with implementation set to begin later this year. We are seeing the equivalent of the tech giants being taken hostage and told to both open their platforms to perfectly capable competitors and ensure that these same competitors don’t abuse their opportunities to harm consumers. It’s absurdity. There is no other way to describe what we are seeing. Customers in the EU don’t stand to benefit from the regulations. And as we will discuss shortly, a good argument can be made that the giants will be able to navigate the legislation without losing much, if any, momentum in the impacted countries.
At the heart of the issue is EU officials viewing the giants, or so called “gatekeepers,” as blocking or preventing smaller competitors from getting a fair shake.
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