Germany: Policy Brief on Digital Markets Act includes Recommendation to limit the Scope of the Term Gatekeeper

On July 5, 2021, the German Monopolies Commission, an independent commission of experts advising the German government, published a policy brief regarding certain recommendations in an effort to strengthen the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The first proposal concerns Art. 3 of the DMA, which should include ecosystem criteria in order to effectively limit the scope of addressees of the DMA. Furthermore, behavioural obligations concerning data portability and interoperability shall be qualified as core functions of platform providers according to the Commission. Finally, the default setting of core platform services and self-preferential treatment within an ecosystem, in general, should be prohibited in Art. 5 DMA, as stated in the policy brief.