MEP Paul Tang said everyone thinks it’s okay to make calls without knowing which service provider the other person is using. “This should be a general exchange. It’s not only because Threema or Signal don’t want it, but it’s also for the convenience of the users.”
Some MEPS, including Tang, expressed frustration at a compromise that detracts from the idea of interoperability, rather than adopting it across more services. “The interoperability of social media is being pushed into the distant future,” German MEP Martin Schirdewan, head of the Left group at the European Parliament, told WIRED via email. He also described it as a “scandal” where users would have to wait three years before group chats could include members from different apps.
The Digital Markets Act is one half of the tech twin MEP legislation that promises to reshape Europe’s relationship with America’s tech giants. While its counterpart, the Digital Services Act, focuses on illegal content, the DMA is Europe’s answer to complaints that have raged across the continent for years. Spotify of Sweden speak Apple’s app store fees give Apple Music an “unfair advantage”. Swiss email provider ProtonMail speak Google and Apple use default settings to prioritize their own email clients on Android and iPhone. And German cloud provider NextCloud has branded the way Microsoft combines its OneDrive cloud storage service with the company’s other products is anti-competitive.
However, Europe’s tech companies have been hesitant to celebrate the new rules. ProtonMail founder Andy Yen, who advocates for “selection screenOr a list of email service providers that users can choose from when they set up a new device. “Based on what has been made public so far, it appears that the selection screens will only be rolled out to a very limited number of services, but we will have to wait for the final text to know for sure, ” he said.
“We think [the DMA] Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder of Nextcloud, says it’s not strong enough to stop the tech giants’ anticompetitive behavior. “Moreover, the effectiveness of DMA will be implementation dependent and it will take time to show real results.” Rich Stables, CEO of French price comparison service Kelkoo Group, would only describe the DMA as “potentially transformative”.
Tang said that companies should not evaluate DMAs under the previous laws. The law will be enforced by the Commission, which, unlike GDPR, is enforced by the member states. “It’s a big change,” says Tang. He added that even if companies don’t see specific answers to their problems in the law, the DMA includes tools to tackle a wide range of issues. “We also have Article 10, which allows the Commission to introduce new obligations to gatekeepers,” he said.
However, the skepticism is echoed by the tech giants, who have gone against the law. Lobbyists working on behalf of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have held 48 meetings with officials in the European Parliament and the European Commission since December 2019, the Organization of the Minh Brussels-based EU Transparency International told WIRED, although the group says this is only part of the picture, as not all MEPS publish lobbying meetings.
