The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is a success It should be strengthened and its scope extended. Despite somewhat disappointing implementation so far, the EU's DMA has become a global model for modern antitrust policy. While Europe refines its implementation, it is already necessary to expand its scope and strengthen its provisions. Here's how to further improve the DMA.
Integrating new core platform services into the Digital Markets Regulation (DMA): Last week, the European Commission sought public input on ways to improve the European Digital Markets Regulation (DMA). In collaboration with Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), an EDRi member, we submitted a response to the Commission, conveying a clear message: strengthen the regulation's enforcement, significantly increase transparency regarding obligations and actions already undertaken by key players, and extend the DMA to other core platform services and business sectors suffering from excessive concentration of control power.
Specifically, we recommend that the Commission include "generative AI" services within the DMA's scope. While some of these services are currently covered – for example, when they are part of a search engine or a "virtual assistant" like Alexa –, the law's wording does not clearly determine to what extent services such as ChatGPT or Copilot would currently be subject to gatekeeper rules.
Moreover, the difficulties encountered in effectively applying DMA rules in the context of operating systems like Windows, iOS and Android demonstrate a regulatory gap, particularly when gatekeepers control the entire mobile stack, including hardware, firmware, operating system, app store and default applications.
Despite the DMA's efforts to increase market competition, no improvement is to be reported concerning the mobile operating systems market. On the contrary: Google and Apple are reacting strongly by circumventing their obligations and, in Google's case, by further strengthening the security of its Android system, previously relatively open.
We therefore propose to also apply the DMA to end-user digital devices to ensure device neutrality for gatekeepers: no gatekeeper should be able to control which software, applications, operating systems, firmware, etc. end users wish to install and run on their devices.
Refining and strengthening current gatekeeper rules. The US Data Broadcasting Act (DMA) grants users the right to uninstall pre-installed applications they do not wish to use. Google is attempting to circumvent this provision by claiming that allowing these applications to be disabled is sufficient to comply with the law. We contest this claim and recommend that the Commission clarify the relevant provision to prevent actors like Google from abusively redefining common terms. "Uninstall" means removing an application, not disabling it.
We also urge the Commission to strengthen the DMA provision on application freedom to prevent Apple and Google from circumventing it. Currently, the DMA requires distribution platforms to allow the use of alternative app stores. However, Google and Apple are trying to maintain total control over these stores by imposing identification obligations and fees on developers, even when their applications are never available on the platform's store. If we accept this situation under the DMA, these companies will continue to control users' application choices and their digital lives.
The rise in recent years of alternative and decentralized social media platforms demonstrates the benefits of open standards for social networks. We strongly recommend that the Commission finally establish a clear interoperability mandate for all dominant platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. This would reduce the harmful network effect these platforms currently benefit from and facilitate migration for users wishing to turn to alternative social networks like Mastodon or Bluesky. This would also help reunite the extremely fragmented online public discussion space.
Significantly strengthening transparency and rule enforcement. Finally, in our contribution, we ask the Commission to significantly improve transparency regarding rule compliance by intermediaries. Currently, the public and civil society monitoring organizations, such as EDRi and FSFE, have no way to verify the measures taken by these intermediaries, the changes made to the user interface, or other elements of the products and services implemented, nor their effects. No public data is available on the number of users affected by these changes, nor on the resulting market or user behavior evolution.
This is why the DMA should task the Commission with creating a public compliance database providing raw data and technical details on each compliance measure taken by gatekeepers. This database should also indicate the modified product or service, as well as its version, specifying the targeted DMA provision. Evidence of these modifications (screenshots or images, as applicable) should be made public, as should information regarding their implementation date and beneficiaries. Furthermore, gatekeepers should be required to provide regular updates on the measured impact for each modification.
Without greater transparency, gatekeepers will continue to be able to circumvent their obligations while concealing their conduct from the public, and civil society will be seriously hindered in its efforts to support data management law enforcement.
The DMA is under threat and must be strengthened accordingly. These past two years, we have witnessed an unprecedented surge in attacks against EU digital legislation. These attacks are led by the same digital giants that these laws attempt to control, and since Donald Trump's return to power, they benefit from full White House support. If the EU takes digital sovereignty seriously, we must strengthen our legislation now and ensure it protects every link in the technological infrastructure and every sector of the digital industry against intermediary power and monopolization.
Original article EDRi · Oct 16, 2025: https://edri.org/our-work/the-dma-is-a-success-it-should-be-strengthened-and-expanded/
