Coalition of Business Groups Urge COMPET Council to Preserve Competition with DMA
BRUSSELS – Today, a coalition of 15 business groups issued the following joint statement (opens in a new tab) to the Competitiveness (COMPET) Council underscoring the importance of preserving competition in the Digital Markets Act (DMA) ahead of the Council’s 27 May meeting on the measure’s progress report:
“The undersigned organisations appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the upcoming Competitiveness Council discussion on the Digital Markets Act’s progress report.
“We strongly support free and undistorted competition as key to promoting innovation and consumer welfare. The business community is committed to addressing challenges arising from digitalisation in the EU and globally. Because of our very diverse membership we recognize the many equities at stake in this debate, and the need for action to preserve competitive markets for all.
“Proportionate instruments that ensure effective competition and contestable markets should be considered wherever necessary. For this reason, we fully endorse the DMA’s goal of fostering an ecosystem that enables innovative market players to succeed, safeguarding long-term consumer welfare and economic efficiency.
“In order to ensure the new framework is well-functioning and effective, it is essential that it is clear and limited in scope to those core platform services that are meant to be addressed by the proposal, centered around proportionate and sound obligations, accompanied by key procedural and substantive protections drawn from long-standing European legal principles.
“Crucially, we support the establishment through the DMA of a ‘regulatory dialogue’ providing the Commission and all the businesses concerned the possibility to discuss an implementation plan for the substantive obligations, that are by their nature more generic and open to interpretation, given the variety of business models in the platform economy. The regulatory dialogue should be a necessary step that increases legal certainty, allowing for further specification and tailoring of obligations proportionate to the service concerned in a timely fashion.
“Our organisations stand ready to support the European Union’s endeavor to find proportionate policy tools to guarantee a consistent approach and fair competition in Europe.”
The statement’s signatories are: ACT – The App Association, Adigital – Asociación Española de la Economía Digital, Allied for Startups, AmCham EU, Anitec-Assinform – Associazione Italiana per l’Information and Communication Technology, CCIA – Computer and Communications Industry Association, Digital Future for Europe, Digitalna Slovenija, Infobalt, ITI – Information Technology Industry Council, LIKTA – Latvian Information and Communications Technology Association, NL Digital, SPCR – Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic, ZPP, Zipsee – Digital Poland.