The Digital Markets Act (DMA) was designed to curb market dominance but has instead entrenched U.S. tech supremacy and crippled European innovation.
Former EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager warned in 2023 that regulators must anticipate technological shifts-yet the DMA reacts too slowly, misjudging markets like the metaverse and AI. Meta’s brief shutdown of Horizon Worlds underscores how regulators misread consumer and corporate trajectories.
US FTC Chair Andrew N. Ferguson bluntly observed: "Over-regulation has diminished Europe’s ability to compete." Every firm labeled a "gatekeeper" under the DMA is American-despite Microsoft’s minimal presence in social media, search, or LLMs.
Regulators treat Amazon like a 19th-century railroad, ignoring that today’s platforms are dynamic ecosystems, not static infrastructure. This flawed logic forces European firms to compete on U.S.-owned platforms rather than for the market itself-a battle they cannot win.
The DMA mirrors failed telecom regulation: Europe ceded digital infrastructure to American firms, then tried to regulate access instead of building alternatives. The result? European startups are locked out of innovation leadership.
Abolishing the DMA won’t fix Europe’s deeper problem: a regulatory culture that suppresses risk, rewards caution, and ignores supply and demand.
What’s needed is radical deregulation and aggressive enforcement of the EU’s own internal market rules. Without bold institutional change, Europe will keep losing the digital race.
The DMA is not regulating competition. It is regulating failure.