The proposed Digital Markets Act

The market power of digital platforms and ecosystems has probably been the most discussed and concerning topic in competition policy in the last years. Some companies in the area of digital platforms have grown so rapidly that they now dominate entire industries. These firms are particularly Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (the so-called GAFAM). Besides the dominant position these organisations are the most valuable firms in the world, according to their stock market capitalisation. These big tech companies even top companies in oil and financial services regarding world market capitalisation. According to Art. 102 TFEU it is not forbidden to have a dominant position, but the abuse of it is. Apart from this it is concerning when this dominant position is no longer contestable and other companies can therefore not enter the digital market anymore. Further grew the concerns that large tech companies may abuse their market power to protect and expand their market position at the costs of their competitors and consumer welfare. Following the introduction of new laws regarding this issue in some member states like Germany , the European Commission proposed in December 2020 the DMA to ‘ensure fair and open digital markets’ in the EU and to regulate the big tech companies. The DMA is therefore the reaction of the EU to potential abuses of market power in digital markets. This thesis aims to give an overview over the objectives of EU Law which are important in relation to the DMA and EU Competition Law. Furthermore provides this work an analysis of the digital market with its features and challenges and introduces the DMA as a possible solution for the problems on the digital market.