Digital Markets and Digital Services: A New Stage of the EU Internal Market Regulation

Abstract

The article explores the EU Digital Markets Law and Digital Services Law adopted in the fall of 2022. The new legislative framework aims to control large digital platforms and search engines that have become market dominant and abuse their power by discriminating against third–party businesses, and to make online platforms and intermediaries more accountable. The authors provide examples of troubling practices by such companies. The provisions of the first document apply to the socalled gatekeepers, which include service providers that have become gateways between businesses and end users and for this reason have a significant impact on the EU internal market, of the second one – to providers of intermediary services qualified as mere conduit, caching and hosting services. A separate group includes very large online platforms and search engines. The laws set quantitative thresholds for companies subject to the laws. They contain lists of rights and responsibilities of such companies. The laws caused conflicting responses. One group of experts supports them, believing that they will solve many problems faced by businesses and ordinary users. Other researchers argue that new laws were not necessary and existing legal framework should have been improved. They also criticize certain provisions of the laws. The authors conclude that the laws correspond to the current market reality, but their application changes the competition environment.