The Digital Markets Act Is “Bad Economics and Bad Law,” Says ITIF
BRUSSELS—Following the European Commission’s final adoption of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, issued the following statement from Aurelien Portuese, director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy:
The Digital Markets Act represents bad economics and bad law, and its adoption comes at a bad time.
It is bad economics because it will prohibit a select group of Internet firms that have evolved in highly dynamic digital markets from using their efficiencies of scale and new innovations to challenge entrenched incumbents in other sectors—even when doing so provides lower prices and other clear benefits to consumers. In fact, the DMA preemptively forbids the firms it deems to be “gatekeepers” from claiming economic efficiency as a defense in such cases.
The DMA is bad law because it will be impossible to implement without severely disrupting Europe’s digital single market. It doesn’t provide clear implementation guidelines, and it will fragment instead of harmonize the regulatory landscape while introducing the precautionary principle into antitrust matters.
The DMA comes at a particularly bad time, as Europe and the United States are trying to find a common approach to digital competition through the EU-U.S. Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue. There is little chance the parties will see eye-to-eye on a policy that prosecutes disruptive innovation and defends the status quo.
For more on this issue, members of the media are invited to join ITIF on Thursday, 22 September, at 15:00 CET, for a webinar featuring a panel of experts from academia and the European Commission and the presentation of a new ITIF report on the challenges in implementing and enforcing the DMA. Details follow.
Expert Webinar: The EU’s Digital Markets Act: A Triumph of Regulation Over Innovation?
Date and Time: Thursday, 22 September, 2022 09:00–10:00 AM EDT / 15:00–16:00 CET
Featured Speakers:
Giuseppe Colangelo, Associate Professor, University of Basilicata
Renato Nazzini, Professor of Law, King’s College London
Aurelien Portuese, Director, ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy (Moderator)
Denis Sparas, Legal and Policy Officer, European Commission
Andras Toth, Chairman of the Competition Council, Vice-President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, Associate Professor at Karoli University of Budapest
Lea Zuber, Policy Officer, European Commission
RSVP: Register online or email [email protected].
Questions: Submit questions online via Slido for the speakers to answer during the event.
Media wishing to interview Aurelien Portuese about ITIF’s report prior to the event, may contact [email protected].
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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on the intersection of technological innovation and public policy. Recognized by its peers in the think tank community as the global center of excellence for science and technology policy, ITIF’s mission is to formulate and promote policy solutions that accelerate innovation and boost productivity to spur growth, opportunity, and progress.
