The Digital Markets Act (DMA) creates an ex ante regime for large online platforms designated as “gatekeepers,” aiming to ensure markets in the digital sector are “contestable and fair.” It complements competition law and harmonises obligations across the EU to avoid fragmentation. The act imposes hard-edged duties on gatekeepers, including limits on combining personal data without consent, prohibitions on self-preferencing in ranking, app uninstallation and default choice freedoms, interoperability, data portability, and mandatory transparency for online advertising pricing and metrics. The DMA’s AI relevance is substantial because it touches “algorithmic structures,” ranking, recommender and ad-delivery systems, and access to data used to train and operate these systems, thereby shaping platform governance that interacts with AI services such as search, virtual assistants, social networks and app stores.
Full name (additional link): Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act) (Text with EEA relevance)