Written by Polona Car.
Enforcement of the Digital Markets Act is under way. The European Commission has launched formal proceedings against three major providers of core platform services. The Commission’s preliminary findings suggest breaches of EU rules. To date, two of these preliminary findings have been confirmed, resulting in non-compliance decisions and fines for the companies in April 2025.
Digital Markets Act: A short introduction
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) establishes clear rules for gatekeepers, fostering a fair and open platform environment. Gatekeepers are platforms with a systemic role, providing core platform services (CPS) such as online search engines, web browsers, social networks, app stores and messenger services, which control an entire digital landscape. These platforms act as bottlenecks between businesses and consumers in the internal market for crucial digital services. To fall within the DMA’s scope, a company must meet specific quantitative thresholds: an annual turnover of at least €7.5 billion, and a market capitalisation of at least €75 billion. Additionally, companies must provide a CPS in at least three EU countries, have a minimum of 45 million monthly active end-users, and serve more than 10 000 active business users per year. The DMA prevents gatekeepers from abusing their market power, promoting fair competition and creating a level playing field for all businesses. This, in turn, ensures freedom of choice for consumers. As a complementary measure to EU competition rules, the DMA aims to maintain a competitive and innovative digital landscape. The Act entered into force on 1 November 2022.
Gatekeepers and their obligations
The Commission has so far designated seven gatekeepers (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Booking) for 24 specific platform services. The obligation to comply with the DMA obligations and prohibitions starts 6 months after designation. Within the same deadline, gatekeepers need to provide the Commission with a report describing the measures they have implemented to ensure compliance with these obligations.
Figure 1: Designated gatekeepers
Obligations for gatekeepers include:
- allowing third-party interoperability, to enable user interaction with third-party services or linking up to businesses outside gatekeepers’ platforms;
- ensuring that users have the right to unsubscribe from CPS under similar conditions to subscription, and enabling them to uninstall any pre-installed software or app;
- providing access to data, and enabling data portability;
- prohibition to reuse personal data collected during provision of one service for the purposes of another; gatekeepers are not allowed to track end-users outside their CPS for targeted advertising, without obtaining effective consent;
- prohibition of unfair business practices, such as self-preferencing;
- informing the Commission of any intended concentration, involving entities that provide CPS or other digital services;
- annual independently audited reports on consumer profiling techniques.
These rules empower consumers to enjoy greater freedom of choice in digital services, have better control over their personal data, and enable them to transfer data between platforms. Furthermore, consumers can access platforms more easily and rely on unbiased search results. For businesses, the DMA unlocks operating system features that facilitate app distribution and interoperability. This helps to resolve conflicts of interest, promote competition through ranking and sales terms, and ensure access to data.
The enforcer: European Commission
The Commission is the sole enforcer of the DMA – with help from other entities, notably the High-Level Group on the DMA, Digital Markets Advisory Committee, and national competition authorities. As DMA enforcer, the Commission can adopt non-compliance decisions, it performs market investigations to determine infringements, if necessary update gatekeepers’ obligations (by way of implementing acts) and design measures to tackle systematic infringements of the DMA’s rules. It can request information from gatekeepers, and access to any data and algorithms, including through interviews or onsite inspections. In urgent cases, it has the power to order interim measures against gatekeepers. When infringements are established, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10 % of a company’s global annual turnover and up to 20 % of worldwide turnover for repeated infringement. In cases of systematic infringements, it can apply structural remedies, such as the divestiture of (parts of) a business.
European Parliament concerns
In January 2025, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee working group on the implementation of the DMA sent a letter to Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen to evaluate the potential designation of cloud and AI services as CPS. The group also urged the Commission to accelerate ongoing investigations under the DMA to avoid any delays. Even though cloud services are already within the scope of CPS under the DMA, MEPs expressed concern that no gatekeeper had been designated so far. MEPs requested that the Commission closely monitors not only cloud services, but also artificial intelligence (AI) services, as they are tightly interdependent, noting that cloud services are indispensable for the deployment and growth of AI technologies. In contrast, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) has argued that underlying technologies themselves cannot be considered as CPS under the DMA, hence is not favourable to adding AI services as an additional CPS under the DMA.
Formal proceedings to investigate non-compliance
On 25 March 2024, the Commission opened formal proceedings against Alphabet, Apple and Meta, to investigate non-compliance with the DMA. In the case of Alphabet and Apple the issue is whether the companies have implemented the measures pertaining to app stores, which allow app developers to freely steer consumers to alternative channels. Preferential treatment of Alphabet’s own vertical search services (e.g. Google shopping or Google Hotels), is also part of the investigation. Investigation of Apple also includes the design of the iPhone web-browser default settings. Meta was put under scrutiny for its ‘pay or consent’ model, which makes it impossible for users to refuse consent to the use of their personal data if they wish to continue using the service for free. After opening formal proceedings, the Commission should aim to issue a non-compliance decision within 12 months. This is preceded by preliminary findings, together with an explanation of the measures to address them.
On 24 June 2024, the Commission informed Apple of its preliminary view that its App Store is in breach of the DMA for not allowing app developers to freely communicate alternative offers to customers. In addition, the Commission opened new proceedings to investigate whether Apple’s new contractual requirements for developers comply with the DMA, as they do not allow alternative distribution channels. On 1 July 2024, Meta received the Commission’s preliminary findings, that its ‘pay or consent’ advertising model is in breach of the DMA. The Commission’s view was that the model forces users to give consent on the use of their personal data while not having the alternative of a less personalised free-of-charge version of a social network. Finally, Alphabet was informed on 19 March 2025 of the Commission’s preliminary view that it is in breach of the DMA rules regarding two of its services under investigation: Google Play app store prevents app developers from freely steering consumers to better offers, while Google search treats Alphabet’s services more favourably than others. The preliminary findings do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. Gatekeepers have the right of defence and to be heard on those preliminary findings.
On 23 April 2025, the Commission issued the first non-compliance decisions. It fined Apple €500 million for not complying with the DMA regarding steering rules for the App Store. The investigation into web browser choice was closed, as the Commission considered that Apple had effectively addressed the user choice obligations. The Commission also took the preliminary view that Apple breaches DMA obligations regarding its contract terms, which prevent third-party app stores on iOS. Meta was fined €200 million for not giving users the choice of a service that uses less personal data. The other investigations are continuing.
Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘Digital Markets Act enforcement: State of play‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
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