“It’s Important to Limit the Market Power of Tech Giants in Advance”

Today, the EU Commission is set to unveil the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts in Brussels. Professor Achim Wambach, president of ZEW Mannheim and member of the Monopolies Commission, comments on this matter: “The EU Commission’s efforts to establish new rules that take into account the fast-paced dynamics of digital markets and limit the market power of tech giants in advance is the right approach. In the future, it will be important to prevent individual companies in digital markets from becoming uncontrollably powerful in the first place.

This requires strict rules which send a clear signal to market-dominant tech giants that self-favouritism does not go well with competition and that they must assume particular responsibility with regard to data protection. As has been shown in the past, the EU Commission is capable of influencing the behaviour of powerful tech giants; however, the respective procedures usually take a very long time. The Digital Markets Act unveiled today is therefore an important step towards ensuring that competition in digital markets continues to function in the future.”