EU digital antitrust law under the new European Commission

The new European Commission will be judged by how successful it is in enforcing the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”). Another focus will be on artificial intelligence (“AI”) and data.

DMA enforcement

Since March 2024, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft have had to ensure DMA compliance for 22 platform services such as search engines, social networks and operating systems; Booking (and Apple’s iPadOS) have been subject to these rules since November (see on affected services Noerr Insights).

ByteDance challenged TikTok’s designation as a gatekeeper before the General Court of the European Union. In the first judicial review of the European Commission’s work under the DMA, the Court noted errors in assessing the gatekeeper status (such as insufficient consideration of EU turnover), but ultimately dismissed the action in its entirety (for details, see Noerr Insights).

If the Court of Justice of the European Union upholds this ruling, it would be clear that once the thresholds required for gatekeeper designation are met, it becomes very difficult to successfully challenge the designation in court. However, during the designation process before the European Commission, companies have already succeeded with their arguments (e.g. X, Samsung, or partially Microsoft). The annulment actions of other gatekeepers (e.g. Apple in relation to iOS and AppStore and Meta in relation to Facebook Messenger and Marketplace) are still pending.

The outcomes of the European Commission’s non-compliance proceedings against Alphabet (self-preferencing in Google searches; Google Play steering rules), Apple (AppStore steering rules; iPhone default settings) and Meta (“pay-or-consent” model) are also highly anticipated (for details, see Noerr Insights), along with their expected judicial reviews.

One thing is clear: the new European Commission will want to show that the DMA is an efficient instrument. An important factor for effective enforcement will be the extent to which it succeeds in involving companies affected by gatekeepers in the compliance process (information for app developers, online intermediary services and advertisers/publishers on Noerr Insights). This is because the companies affected are best positioned to assess whether compliance has been achieved.

AI and virtual worlds

Given the disruptive nature of AI and the associated risks, the European Commission has announced that it will use all the tools at its disposal to ensure that these new markets remain competitive, contestable and fair.

A policy brief published in September 2024 examines market dynamics, entry barriers and anti-competitive concerns related to key inputs for these technologies, such as data, microchips, computing power infrastructure and cloud capacity. To address these concerns, not only the DMA but also antitrust law and merger control will play a role.

European data law as an antitrust law challenge

The EU also wants to further expand the cross-sectoral use of data to ensure innovation and competition. A large number of EU legal acts on the commercial usability of data have already been adopted, such as the Data Act, which forms part of the European data strategy. All of these regulatory frameworks have key intersections with antitrust law, presenting companies with the complex challenge of setting up comprehensive compliance systems.

This article is part of the Competition Outlook 2025. You can find all Competition Outlook articles here.