3. DIGITAL MARKETS ACT 3.1 Context 11 The Digital Markets Act introduces common rules across the single market that will foster innovation, growth and competitiveness, and facilitate the scaling up of smaller platforms, small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups who will have a single, clear framework at EU level. The Digital Markets Act introduces rules for platforms that act as “gatekeepers” in the digital sector and aims at preventing gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end users and at ensuring the openness of important digital services. “Gatekeepers” are platforms that have a significant impact on the internal market, serve as an important gateway for business users to reach their end users, and which enjoy an entrenched and durable position. This can grant them the power to act as private rulemakers and to function as bottlenecks between businesses and end users. The Digital Markets Act will be applicable only to companies that will be identified as “gatekeepers” according to objective criteria set out in the proposal, but they have the opportunity to rebut the presumption. These are companies that play a particularly important role in the internal market because of their size and their importance as gateways for business users to reach their customers. In this context, ten core platform services will be subject to the Digital Markets Act: online intermediation services, such as accommodation services; online search engines such as carriage of passengers services; online social networking services; video-sharing platform services; number-independent interpersonal communication services; operating systems; cloud computing services; advertising services; web browsers; and virtual assistants. As a precondition, these companies need to be identified as gatekeeper for at least one of the so-called “core platform services” enumerated in the Digital Markets Act (such as online search engines, social networking services, app stores, certain messaging services, virtual assistants, web browsers, operating systems and online intermediation services). The same company can be identified as gatekeeper for several core platform services. Specifically, there are three main cumulative criteria that bring a company under the scope of the Digital Markets Act: 1. A size that impacts the internal market: this is presumed to be the case if the company achieves an annual turnover in the European Economic Area (EEA) equal to or above €7.5 billion in in each of the last three financial years, or where its average market capitalisation or equivalent fair market value amounted to at least €75 billion in the last financial year, and it provides a core platform service in at least three Member States; 2. The control of an important gateway for business users towards final consumers: this is presumed to be the case if the company operates a core platform service with more than 45 million monthly active end users established or located in the EU and more than 10,000 yearly active business users established in the EU in the last financial year; 3. An entrenched and durable position: this is presumed to be the case if the company met the other two criteria in each of the last three financial years. See, www.europa.eu 11
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