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 Index 
 Full text 
Verbatim report of proceedings
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Tuesday, 14 December 2021 - Strasbourg Revised edition

Digital Markets Act (debate)
MPphoto
 

  Ondřej Kovařík, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. – Madam President, high concentration of market power by a handful of companies is never good for competition. Such business structure deforms the market and creates barriers to the entry of new companies. Ultimately, that leads to slower innovation, increased costs and harm to consumers. That’s the theory but, in practice, this is what is happening right now in the global market in digital services. The big platforms quickly strengthen their position, while other companies struggle to compete as there is no real level playing field.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) will bring solutions to this problem. It will provide a clearer and more predictable framework for businesses, but also for enforcement authorities. We want to prevent big platforms’ gatekeepers from abusing their powers and enable their competitors to innovate and grow. The DMA does not aim to target a couple of business groups with heavy restrictions, but it sets out the rules needed for the respect of basic principles, such as fair competition and consumer protection.

In the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), we mainly dealt with the preservation of a high level of protection of user rights, especially with regard to data privacy. Data is critical. This is what gives power to companies. We need to ensure that anything that happens to Europeans’ personal data fully complies with the General Data Protection Regulation, and we must also make sure not to create loopholes circumventing it.

I would like to thank all the shadows and LIBE colleagues that helped us put together the opinion and wish all success to the negotiating team headed by Andreas Schwab for the upcoming trilogue on this important piece of legislation.

 
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