East meets West Expert Series
An Expert Roundtable organised by the Europe-Asia Centre, Brussels – August 2022
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) presents another legislative step of the European block towards strengthening the European’s “strategic autonomy”. With the rise and integration of digital platforms into almost every dimension of European life, Europe recognized the need to regulate not only the benefits of digital transformation, but also of disadvantages and risks such as the negative influence on fundamental rights, state of democracies, societies and economies at large.
At the core of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) remains the issue of tackling competition rules, which have previously fallen short in regulating the business practices of tech giants such as Google, Amazon or Meta. The political signal sent has been clear and as stated by the leading MEP working on the DMA, Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany): “The DMA will rule out these practices, sending a strong signal to consumers and business in the single market: rules are set by the co-legislators, not private companies”.
With many industry and regulatory stakeholders supporting the idea of some form of regulatory dialogue, there is a mutual consensus on benefits for both users and gatekeepers. Despite the political will in both the Council and European Parliament, there remains the need for dialogue towards making the final text implementable – with both obligations for gatekeepers and their accountability, and perhaps of even higher importance, developing the understanding on effect DMA will have on digital platforms, businesses or private users.
Participating high-level guests
Ambassador (ret.) Piet Steel, Chairman of Europe-Asia Centre, Belgium
H.E. Dr. Andreas Schwab, Member of the European Parliament (EPP Group) and lead on the Digital Markets Act, Germany
H.E. Mark Boris Adrijanic, Minister for Digital transformation (2020 – 2022), Slovenia
Participating experts
Dr. Sebastian Hallensleben, Chair of CEN-CENELEC JTC 21, expert advisory board of EU StandICT and co-chair of OECD ONE.AI group, Germany
Dr. Miguel Otero-Iglesias, Professor of Practice at IE School of Global and Public Affairs and Senior Analyst at Elcano Royal Institute Spain
Roundtable moderator
Mr Matic Gajsek, Deputy Director, Europe – Asia Center, Belgium
Bottom of the page link to the webinar: