Rapports de forces entre Gafam et Union Européenne: analyse de l'impact du Digital Markets Act sur la régularisation des plateformes digitales

Abstract

The Big Tech companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft) are shaping our daily lives and holding a prominent position in our societies. Evolving from platforms to ecosystems, these multinational companies are collecting an intangible asset, data, and competing fiercely for users' attention. They challenge traditional business models and manage to grow much faster than their competitors, reaching quasi-monopolistic positions in the market. These platforms are generating a number of significant problems that states have to deal with. They tend to become private regulators and adopt processes that are detrimental to competition. The digital ecosystem is increasingly controlled by a handful of actors that are difficult for states to challenge. New instruments are being developed by Europe in an attempt to better regulate these platforms. The Digital Markets Act proposed on 15 December 2020 is one of them. This proposal put in place by the European Commission expressly targets gatekeepers, i.e. large platforms, such as the Big Tech. The purpose of this paper is to identify how states should proceed in order to regulate digital platforms and how competition law and the Digital Markets Act do or do not meet these requirements. What are the criteria for an effective regulation of digital platforms? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Digital Markets Act in comparison with competition law and what will be the effects of this legislation on big tech companies? Is the Digital Markets Act the ultimate regulatory tool for digital platforms? What does it concretely bring in addition to what already exists? These are the questions that this paper seeks to answer.