What is the Digital Markets Act?
The Digital Markets Act is Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector. It aims to prevent a few platforms from using their position to disadvantage competitors or dictate terms. Unlike classic competition law, the DMA does not wait for abuse to occur but imposes fixed obligations and prohibitions on the largest providers in advance.
The regulation was adopted on 14 September 2022, entered into force on 1 November 2022 and has applied since 2 May 2023. Designated companies had to comply no later than six months after designation, which for the first gatekeepers meant 7 March 2024. The DMA is enforced by the European Commission.
The DMA is the counterpart to the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA governs how platforms deal with illegal content and risks to users. The DMA governs competition.
Who is a gatekeeper?
As a rule, a gatekeeper is a company that operates a core platform service and meets the thresholds in Article 3:
- Size: EU turnover of at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three financial years or an average market capitalisation of at least €75 billion in the last financial year, plus the same service in at least three Member States.
- Reach: at least 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly active business users in the EU.
- Duration: the user numbers were met in each of the last three financial years.
Core platform services include search engines, online marketplaces, app stores, social networks, video platforms, messengers, operating systems, browsers and advertising services.
On 6 September 2023, the Commission designated the first six gatekeepers: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), META and Microsoft. Apple’s iPad operating system and Booking followed in 2024. Facebook Marketplace has not been designated since April 2025. There are currently 23 core platform services covered by the DMA. In June 2026, the Commission also reached the preliminary view that the cloud services AWS (Amazon) and Azure (Microsoft) should be designated, even though they do not meet the thresholds. This is possible after a market investigation.
The key obligations and prohibitions
The DMA contains a list of dos and don’ts. These are particularly important for businesses that use the platforms:
- Consent for combining data (Art. 5(2)): gatekeepers may only combine personal data from different services or from third parties for advertising with effective consent. Users who do not consent must receive a less personalised but equivalent alternative.
- No self-preferencing (Art. 6(5)): own services must not be ranked more favourably than comparable third-party offers. This mainly affects Google Search.
- Transparency for advertisers (Art. 5(9) and (10), Art. 6(8)): advertisers and publishers are entitled to information on prices and remuneration and to tools to verify the performance of their ads independently.
- Free communication with customers (Art. 5(4)): business users may point their customers to offers outside the platform, such as lower prices in their own shop.
- Access to own data (Art. 6(10)): business users receive access to the data generated by their use of the platform.
- Sharing search data (Art. 6(11)): search engines must offer ranking, query, click and view data to other search engines on fair terms.
- Open systems: pre-installed apps must be uninstallable, alternative app stores and payment methods must be allowed, and messengers must interoperate with other services in certain cases.
Fines and proceedings
For infringements, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of worldwide annual turnover, or up to 20 per cent for repeat infringements. Periodic penalty payments of up to 5 per cent of average daily worldwide turnover can be added. For systematic infringements, structural remedies up to the sale of parts of the business are possible.
The first decisions:
- April 2025: €500 million against Apple because app developers could not freely point their customers to cheaper offers outside the App Store. €200 million against META over the “pay or consent” model for Facebook and Instagram, which offered no equivalent alternative without combining data.
- July 2026: €890 million against Google: €460 million because Google Search favours its own services such as shopping, hotels, transport and sports results over third-party offers, and €430 million because Google Play prevents app developers from pointing customers to other purchase channels.
- July 2026: two binding decisions for Google: rival AI services must get the same access to Android features as Gemini (Art. 6(7)), and Google must give other search engines, including AI chatbots with a search function, anonymised ranking, query, click and view data on fair terms (Art. 6(11)).
What the DMA means for your marketing
Even though the DMA only applies to gatekeepers, everyone who advertises or sells through their platforms feels its effects:
- Consent for Google advertising: since March 2024, Google has required advertisers with users in the European Economic Area to pass consent on to Google, usually via Consent Mode v2. Without it, remarketing lists and personalised ads receive no data. Clean consent management is therefore a prerequisite for campaigns that work.
- Less personalisation at META: users in the EU can choose a version with less personalised advertising. Audiences become smaller, and measurement and attribution more difficult.
- A changed Google Search: Google has adjusted its results pages in the European Economic Area, for example the result units for hotels, flights and shopping, and gives comparison sites more space. For retailers, price comparison sites gain importance, and with them clean product data from feed optimisation.
- More transparency in advertising: advertisers can request information on prices and on the performance of their ads. This strengthens your own web analytics as an independent check.
- New routes for apps and affiliates: app providers may point customers from their app to cheaper offers outside the app store. This creates additional opportunities for affiliate marketing and comparison sites.
The DMA does not replace the General Data Protection Regulation or national rules on cookies. It comes on top of them.
Would you like to know how the DMA affects your campaigns and your tracking? Then get in touch with us or read more about our consent management and our Google Ads management!
