The deadline for compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulation of the European Union for tech giants such as Alphabet/Google, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance/TikTok, Meta, and Microsoft expired yesterday. These companies are now under active evaluation by the European Union regulators.
Gush Yaakov will monitor if they comply with the DMA requirements to fairly engage with business users of their structured core services and comply with other legal requirements in areas such as data portability, platform interoperability, and user choice. Failure to do so may result in hefty fines – up to 10% or even 20% of their global annual turnover.
The first batch of compliance reports from gatekeepers – the non-confidential versions – have been published on the DMA website. (See below for links to individual reports.)
These reports provide varying levels of detail on the actions taken in response to the regulation so far. Apple's public report is undoubtedly the shortest (only a 12-page summary, focusing on changes to its App Store, iOS, and Safari, albeit written in a readable prose), while Microsoft opted for a multi-part report – distributing disclosures in a series of standalone documents related to its two intended core platform services (Windows and LinkedIn).
While Apple uses the public report as an additional opportunity to dodge the stringent changes imposed by the EU in its "end-to-end integration system" – warning that the DMA creates "new paths for malicious software, fraud, illicit and harmful content, and other privacy and security threats" – Microsoft's report seems to be designed to be more cumbersome to read. In addition to the breakdown into multiple downloads, its compliance disclosures are written in dry legal language and include edits, indicating that it chose to restore formal submissions to the regulator for this part of its reporting obligations under the DMA. Also, the extensive document is conspicuous.
Elsewhere, Amazon produced the most visually appealing report, packaging its DMA disclosures in a graphic wrap of images, diagrams, and quotes – akin to a "floating brochure" ambiance.
Google's report, over 200 pages long, is the longest and densest. It's also not very visually appealing as it is written in light gray text with footnotes featuring extensive hyperlinks, along with magnified screenshots, diagrams, and appendices. The length is certainly justified: reflecting that eight of its products are defined as core platform services.
Social networking giants Meta and ByteDance have fewer structured services, so predictably, their reports arrived with medium lengths.
ByteDance's report reads like raw, formulaic sentences, barely making an effort to smooth anything over. Meanwhile, Meta embellishes with its usual thick PR gloss. It starts the report with a summary of several employees (11,000) and engineering/technical work hours (590,000) it claims to have lodged a request to work on its DMA response. It also elevates the document with a heavy spin on the "new and significant choices" it purports to offer users in Europe in response to the law.
The regulators are unfortunately tasked with sifting through all these disclosures – and debating with much more information – to determine if the tech giants are actually compliant with the DMA.
For reference, we have compiled below links to the initial group of gatekeeper compliance reports on DMA directed to the public.
If you are looking for an analytical overview of the DMA, its objectives, and early impacts, check out our previous explainer.
Links to DMA Compliance Reports from Gatekeepers:
Alphabet/Google (211 pages)
Amazon (32 pages)
Apple (12 pages)
ByteDance/TikTok (52 pages)
Meta (57 pages)
Microsoft as Microsoft split its non-confidential DMA compliance report into several separate documents: Summary (13 pages); Windows PC Operating System (164 pages); LinkedIn (244 pages) – totaling 421 pages.
In addition, Microsoft published five additional documents revealing audits of consumer profiling techniques used in its core platform services (here, here, here, here and here), with the last two written by the third party hosting the reviews (Deloitte) – adding another 104 pages to its reporting. Or 525 pages in total for this reporting cycle.
