Open Markets Institute Europe Reacts to the Digital Markets Act Review
In response to the European Commission’s first review of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Open Markets Institute Europe warns that the Commission is failing to seize the full potential of the DMA to address harmful abuses of market power by digital gatekeepers.
"The Digital Markets Act was designed to open up Europe’s digital economy by curbing the entrenched power of gatekeepers and restoring fair competition, yet it will only be truly effective if it is regularly updated in response to new technologies and new threats,” said Max von Thun, Director of Open Markets Institute Europe. “Instead of insisting on business as usual, the European Commission must ensure that the DMA is adapted to emerging challenges, including the rise of cloud and AI-driven services. Without robust and forward-looking DMA and competition enforcement, Europe will struggle to build the sovereign tech alternatives it so desperately needs.”
OMI Europe welcomes the tangible impact that the DMA has had within a short amount of time and applauds the Commission’s efforts to designate seven gatekeepers and 23 core platform services (CPS), to enforce the law’s obligations on those gatekeepers, and to launch investigations and take remedial action where there is non-compliance.
However, the Commission’s is wrong to conclude that the DMA “remains fit for purpose and does not need to be revised”. In particular, the review is a missed opportunity to address limited contestability in the areas of cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and social media. As an ex-ante tool, the DMA has a key role to play in limiting the growth and entrenchment of gatekeeper power in these markets. However, the DMA’s current design severely limits its ability to do so effectively.
OMI Europe welcomes the Commission’s plans to designate several dominant cloud providers as gatekeepers. However, as argued in both our submission to the review and our recent publication “Taming the Hyperscalers”, the DMA’s obligations must be adapted before they can be effectively applied to powerful cloud providers. This includes obligations on self-preferencing, unfair and discriminatory terms, bundling and interoperability.
On AI, although the Commission's review acknowledges AI as an area 'requiring particular focus', it fails to commit to any concrete measures – despite the rapidly growing dominance of existing gatekeepers across the AI stack. In OMI’s view, such measures should include immediately designating dominant AI assistants/agents as “virtual assistants” under the DMA and formally investigating whether new CPS categories are needed, such as foundation models. The review also fails to acknowledge the need to update the DMA’s obligations to tackle AI-specific harms more effectively, including model access restrictions, discriminatory API terms, and tying between AI and non-AI services.
Finally, OMI Europe strongly believes that the DMA’s interoperability requirements should be extended to social media gatekeepers as soon as possible. This is an essential step in reducing user lock-in and creating new opportunities for European social media alternatives, and ultimately in defending European public debate and democracy from foreign interference and manipulation.
Beyond the review, we urge the Commission to resist any attempts by foreign actors – whether governments or corporations – to interfere in enforcement of the DMA. In this regard, we are deeply concerned by recent credible reports suggesting that DMA enforcement decisions are already being delayed due to fears of retaliation from the Trump administration. If Europe wants to be truly sovereign in the digital realm, it cannot allow enforcement of its digital laws to be weakened in this way. Robust enforcement of the DMA will also reduce Europe’s digital dependencies by creating new opportunities for sovereignty European alternatives, thereby limiting the continent’s vulnerability to coercion.
OMI Europe strongly urges the Commission to reconsider the conclusions reached in its DMA review. While the Commission should be proud of its early successes, the DMA will require regular and effective updates if it is to keep up with the pace of change in digital markets, especially in AI.