France is calling on the European Commission to set out precisely which digital platforms and digital markets will be covered by the legislation on digital markets (the Digital Markets Act). This is the message contained in an internal memo that EUROPE had sight of on Thursday 12 November.
This document completes France’s response to the public consultation. The document seeks to influence the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, which the European Commission intends to publish on 2 December. In any event, Paris would like these two proposals to be presented together, with the same level of ambition.
Overall, the country supports an ex ante tool for early intervention, a suitable dispute settlement mechanism for the implementation of ex ante remedies and the possibility of ex post precautionary measures.
France supports the idea of a black list of unfair practices as an ex ante measure, but wonders about the exact content of a grey list “and how this tool could work usefully and beneficially”. It also refers to an agile, flexible and targeted “tailor-made remediation arrangement” that can go further than a simple blacklist.
France wants a “selective and narrow” definition of the scope for the regulation on digital platforms. It recommends a targeted approach to market surveys for digital markets, with objective criteria for identifying them.
The document (in French) can be found at: https://bit.ly/3knvE7W (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)