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Digital Markets Act (DMA)
Press release2 May 2023Directorate-General for Competition, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology

DMA: rules for digital gatekeepers to ensure open markets start to apply

The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) applies from today. Now that the DMA applies, potential gatekeepers that meet the quantitative thresholds established 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.

The DMA aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. It defines gatekeepers as those large online platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers, whose position can grant 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 will need to respect, including prohibiting them from engaging in certain behaviours in a list of do's and don'ts.

More information is available in the dedicated Q&A.