Response to the European Commission’s “Inception Impact Assessment for an Ex-Ante Regulatory Instrument”

The Center for Data Innovation submitted feedback to the European Commission’s roadmap titled “Digital Services Act package: Ex-ante regulatory instrument of very large online platforms acting as gatekeepers.” In this submission, we discuss a number of assumptions and claims the Commission’s proposal is based on, analyze the consequences of this proposal, and identify recommendations the Commission should consider.

The proposed ex-ante regulation wrongly assumes that large platforms harm European consumers and businesses; that large platforms are monopolies, hoard data to gain market power, and threaten “EU sovereignty;” and that current competition tools are not enough. In addition, the proposal will create unintended consequences on EU competitiveness, innovation, and consumer welfare, and it reflects a discriminatory strategy.

Instead of creating additional rules, the EU should tackle the real hurdles to its competitiveness, including by adopt evidence-based policies that focus on conduct and the right framework for intervention. It should also prioritize delivering the digital single market, invest in digitalization of businesses, and capitalize on existing assets.