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MaltaToday 18 May 2022 MIDWEEK

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15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 MAY 2022 NEWS EUROPE These articles are part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. SEBASTIAN VASSALLO THE European Parliament's Internal Market Committee (IMCO) endorsed a provision- al agreement with EU govern- ments on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) with 43 votes in favour, one against and one ab- stention. Together with the parallel Digital Services Act (DSA), the DMA will address a number of societal and economic issues by reigning in the market power of big online platforms to make digital markets safer, fairer and more competitive. Andreas Schwab (EPP), who led the negotiations on behalf of Parliament, said Monday's overwhelming majority shows that the European Parliament stands united against "the un- fair practices of gatekeepers". "This is the penultimate step for the DMA to enter into force - for me, it has always been im- portant to fast-track this law while making it better. Now, after the vote in plenary in July, we as the Parliament will hold the Commission accountable for how fast it implements the provisions." The rules will apply to large companies, designated accord- ing to criteria within the act as "gatekeepers", whose dominant online position make them al- most impossible for consumers to avoid. To be designated as a gate- keeper, a company has to pro- vide "core platform services" that render it prone to unfair business practices. wThis may include platforms such as so- cial networks, messengers, virtual assistants, or search en- gines whose turnover in the EU exceeds €7.5 billion or a market value exceeds €75 billion, and at least 45 million monthly end users and 10,000 annual busi- ness users. Gatekeepers will have to fall in line with a series of obli- gations, including that their messaging services be interop- erable with smaller ones. This results in smaller platforms being able to request domi- nant messaging platforms to allow their users to exchange messages, send voice messages or files across messaging apps. This would give users greater choice and avoiding "lock-in" effects where they would be re- stricted to one app or platform. Gatekeepers will have to al- low users to easily uninstall any pre-loaded software apps and let users easily modify de- fault app settings that steer them towards the gatekeeper's products or services. Users will also have the possibility to use third-party applications and app stores. Large online platforms will al- so no longer be able to process users' personal data, unless consent is explicitly given. Non-compliance with these prospective rules will result in serious penalties. The Europe- an Commission will be legally permitted to impose fines of up to 10% of a gatekeeper's to- tal worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year, and heavier penalties up to 20% in case of repeated non-compli- ance. In case of serious systematic infringements, the Commis- sion may ban gatekeepers from acquiring other companies for a certain time (so-called killer acquisitions). The provisional agreement on the sister proposal on the regu- lation of online platforms, the Digital Services Act, was agreed on 23 April 2022. Both propos- als are forecast to be put for a final vote in Parliament in July before they are formally adopt- ed by Council and published in the EU Official Journal. The DMA regulation will go live 20 days following the pub- lication and the provisions will start to apply six months after the publication is released. EU Digital Markets Act a step closer to reality as committee endorses provisional agreement The Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal is stable-mate to the Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal developed as part of a suite of actions to tackle concerns about the operation of the digital environment Gatekeepers will have to fall in line with a series of obligations, including that their messaging services be interoperable with smaller ones The Digital Markets Act lays down obligations for large online platforms acting as 'gatekeepers' and will allow the Commission to sanction non-compliant behaviour

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