Lobbycontrol: Big Tech distorts debates on Digital Markets Act

Tech giants such as Google, Apple, ByteDance and Meta have probably influenced the discussions at European Commission workshops on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This is the result of research by the NGOs Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), SOMO and LobbyControl. According to the research, 21 percent of registered workshop participants had links to the companies that the DMA is intended to regulate. These included representatives of 34 law firms, 22 lobby agencies, 17 trade associations and 10 business consultancies.

Despite the Commission's request to disclose links to the gatekeeper companies, only a few participants complied with the request "regardless of whether they were contractually (lobby agencies and law firms) or financially (think tanks) linked to the gatekeepers", according to Lobbycontrol. "However, if strict disclosure and conflict of interest safeguards are not in place, they can also be easily distorted," explains Margarida Silva, researcher at SOMO.

According to Lobbycontrol, two organizations, "Act | The App Association" and the "International Center for Law and Economics", took part in the workshops without disclosing their corporate sponsors. "The EU Commission is up against tech giants with virtually unlimited lobbying budgets and legal teams. [...] If the EU does not strengthen its enforcement capacity, the DMA will not be able to limit the power of Big Tech," explains Max Bank of Lobbycontrol.

Imbalance between the Commission and tech giants

While the responsible department has 80 employees and 20 supporting officials, the gatekeepers have 106 employees, supplemented by 282 lawyers and lobbyists, according to research by the three organizations. This points to an "immense imbalance of power [...] between the responsible DMA department at the European Commission and the tech companies". "This allowed Google, Apple & Co. to shoot down criticism and influence the discussion in their favor", according to Lobbycontrol.

After 22 services and platforms from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft were classified as gatekeepers by the EU Commission, Apple's iMessage, among others, disappeared from the list following objections from the company. So far, for example, only the gatekeeper Meta has opened up its messengers such as WhatsApp and allowed them to connect to other messengers – if they want to.

CEO, SOMO and LobbyControl are demanding stricter requirements for all workshop participants in terms of the registration process and disclosure obligations before speaking. In addition, organizations that "clearly act as big tech mouthpieces" should not be allowed to participate in the workshops.

(mack)