DMA: How the EU’s big tech law changed citizens’ lives

The DMA took effect successful May 2023 and targets gatekeepers, a fistful of exertion giants whose platforms person go indispensable infrastructure for modern life.

Under the law, companies similar Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and ByteDance indispensable unfastened their ecosystems to rivals, springiness users much power implicit their data, and halt prioritising their ain services implicit competitors'.

The European Commission designated 7 gatekeepers successful total, and the archetypal ceremonial reappraisal of the regulation, published successful April 2026, declared it inactive "fit for purpose".

More choice, much clicks

The astir disposable impacts are caller prime screens and expanded default options. EU iPhone users tin acceptable rival browsers oregon outgo apps arsenic defaults, instal extracurricular apps, and usage third-party outgo solutions. For example, users successful Germany wage via PayPal, portion successful Scandinavia, section outgo apps are disposable connected Apple devices.

Cross-platform messaging, a imagination for integer rights advocates, has begun to materialise. A idiosyncratic of BirdChat, a Latvian start-up, tin present nonstop messages to idiosyncratic connected WhatsApp, which was technically and legally intolerable earlier the DMA. Agustín Reina, Director General of BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, points to this arsenic aboriginal impervious that the instrumentality is working.

"Today, consumers are capable to take their preferred browser connected iOS done what we telephone a prime screen. We besides started to spot that consumers are capable to speech messages from BirdChat with idiosyncratic who is connected WhatsApp,” helium told Euronews.

Research shows that prime screens are effective. Data from six companies tracked by Reuters indicates EU users are moving distant from default browsers similar Chrome and Safari successful favour of privacy-focused alternatives. Mozilla, shaper of Firefox, reports beardown idiosyncratic retention among users who prime its browser via DMA-mandated screens, and credits EU maturation to the law.

The friction problem

Not each national has experienced the DMA arsenic liberating. Consumer surveys amusement elemental integer tasks present necessitate much steps for many, with up to 66 per cent of predominant users noting longer searches and immoderate reporting little applicable results.

Critics reason this friction is not accidental. They assertion the DMA wrongly defines integer contention by prioritising rival entree to established platforms alternatively than encouraging caller competitors. Some pass that enforcing caller rules earlier proven harm discourages concern and delays merchandise launches. The accrued steps and complexity, they say, travel straight from compliance requirements and companies’ responses.

Apple said DMA compliance has affected however it rolls retired features successful the EU. The institution delayed the motorboat of iPhone Mirroring for European users, citing regulatory changes required. For Reina, the existent occupation is not the instrumentality but however companies respond to it. "The question is not whether the DMA makes things much hard for consumers. It is wherefore the implementation of the DMA by these companies is making the workout of DMA rights much hard for consumers," helium told Euronews.

A crippled of ping-pong

In Brussels, wherever integer regularisation is enforced, officials and user groups picture a slow, iterative conflict with the world's largest exertion companies. Gatekeepers taxable changes, the Commission reviews them, finds them insufficient, and the rhythm repeats.

"There is simply a ping-pong betwixt the Commission and the gatekeepers. Many of these companies are making tiny changes and past going backmost to the Commission to say, 'Do you similar this?' And the Commission volition archer them, 'No, this is not enough.' This is simply delaying much-needed changes,” describes Reina.

The Commission has demonstrated its willingness to enforce fiscal penalties. In April 2025, Apple was fined €500 cardinal for violating anti-steering rules that prevented App Store developers from telling users astir cheaper offers elsewhere. Meta received a €200 cardinal good for its "consent-or-pay" advertizing model, which the Commission ruled did not supply users with a genuine alternative. Both companies person appealed.

No fines person been issued specifically for default-choice violations, though the Commission closed a probe into Apple's browser prime surface aft the institution agreed to amended usability.

AI and the adjacent frontier

Consumer groups are considering issues beyond the DMA's existent scope. The accelerated integration of artificial quality into integer platforms raises questions astir whether the instrumentality tin support up with technological advancements.

The Commission has opened an probe into Meta's determination to integrate AI into WhatsApp without offering users the enactment to opt retired oregon take an alternate chatbot, a determination Reina sees arsenic a trial lawsuit for however the regulatory toolkit indispensable evolve. "These markets germinate precise fast, and due to the fact that of the quality of the technology, it becomes overmuch much hard to police. That is wherever the authorities request to person the mechanisms and the tools to say: until here, present you request to present these changes without delay," insists Reina.

BEUC has called for extending the DMA's interoperability rules to societal media platforms, arguing that users should beryllium capable to pass crossed networks without being taxable to unchosen algorithms. The radical besides believes unreality services and AI infrastructure should beryllium included successful the instrumentality arsenic they go cardinal to the integer economy.

Sovereignty, not protectionism

The DMA is present portion of a wider geopolitical dispute. Washington critics picture it arsenic a protectionist measurement aimed astatine American firms. Several of the 7 designated gatekeepers, including Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon, and ByteDance, person office extracurricular Europe, yet the Commission maintains the instrumentality is determined by institution size and marketplace power, not nationality.

The European Parliament asserts that immoderate commercialized woody with the United States would neglect if it meant compromising EU integer standards. "Nowhere successful the DMA are American companies being targeted. It purely follows quantitative and qualitative elements. But Europe indispensable clasp this quality to dictate its ain rules. Foreign interference is simply not acceptable," says Reina.

Consumers attraction astir astir existent impact. BEUC launched "Choice by Default" to rise awareness. The DMA changed integer rules, but whether citizens consciousness this remains uncertain.