Politico I Digital Markets Act - 26.02.2024

First European gatekeeper: Booking “has met the quantitative notification criteria set forth in the DMA and expects to notify” the Commission within the deadline later this month, it said in its earnings statement on Thursday. The travel platforms will be the first European platform the DMA applies to.

Booking to get a big fine too: Booking.com Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Fogel also told investors that the company expects to be fined some €480 million by the Spanish competition authority over practices including preventing hotels undercutting the platform. Booking.com will appeal any “arbitrarily large” and “disproportionate” fine, he said. The DMA “is the right forum to discuss and assess the main concerns raised” by Spanish regulators, the statement said.

APPLE QUESTIONS: “What can the Commission do to protect developers from March 7 if Apple doesn’t comply with the [DMA]?” That’s what French Renew lawmaker Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, and Socialists and Democrats members René Repasi and Paul Tang asked the European Commission in a priority written question last week. 

Sensetting? The lawmakers also want to know if Apple is allowed to give developers the option to continue operating on devices under the original terms and conditions as well as offer alternatives, and whether the iPhone maker has offered any reassurances “that it will not one day decide to sunset the current terms and force all developers into the new terms” to collect a new core technology fee of €0.50 per annual user download.

Who’s in charge here? “A lot of questions remain with little answers from the gatekeepers,” Yon-Courtin said in a statement, adding that the DMA must not become “another opportunity for gatekeepers to set their own rules to the detriment of competitors.”