On Monday 9 October, German MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP) briefed members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (see EUROPE 13258/23). While discussions with the European Commission are progressing on this matter, the former DMA rapporteur would also like to see services associated with regulated services treated in the same way as gatekeepers.
“We discussed whether mail services, cloud services or language assistants should be included in the scope, as they are services associated with regulated services. We hope that the Commission will agree to include them at a later stage, or at least to give it some thought”, commented Andreas Schwab.
In addition, discussions with the Commission focused on targeted advertising and whether or not it is sufficiently covered by the provisions of the DMA.
The number of designated gatekeepers was also a focus of the discussions. The members of the working group responsible for implementing the DMA also examined whether “all the relevant areas in terms of competition are sufficiently covered”.
For its part, the Commission is continuing its work on the DMA. A few hours before Mr Schwab was due to report to the IMCO Committee, the Commission announced that it had published the model compliance report that designated gatekeepers will have to submit under the DMA.
These documents will have to contain “in a detailed and transparent manner all the relevant information the Commission needs to assess effective compliance with the law”. These reports must be submitted within 6 months of designation as a gatekeeper. They must be updated at least once a year. The gatekeepers designated on 6 September (see EUROPE 13244/3) will therefore have to submit their first reports by 7 March 2024 at the latest. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)