While panellists agreed on the importance of the DMA to CODE’s cause of openness, some doubt was expressed about the EU’s ability to implement the law effectively
CODE (re)introduces itself to the EU
On 22 May 2024, Euractiv and the Coalition for Open Digital Ecosystems (CODE) co-hosted an event entitled “A More Competitive Europe Starts with Open Digital Ecosystems”. The event, which (re)introduced the coalition’s advocacy to European policymakers, featured speakers from Qualcomm and Meta, two of the organisation's founding members. Across both portions of the programme, speakers returned to the relatively new organisation’s increasingly familiar rallying cry for more openness among platforms. Panellists defined openness in part as a commitment to interoperability and fair access for developers in a range of contexts, including smartphones and AI services but also cars and other connected devices.
While panellists largely agreed on the need for more open tech markets, the future of telecoms markets drew brief disagreements
In an opening fireside chat, Cristiano Amon (CEO, Qualcomm) contextualised the importance of the conversation on openness in digital economies, arguing that Europe’s economic security was becoming increasingly analogous with its digital security. Without openness, Amon warned that innovation would be limited to only a handful of companies. Fellow CODE member Marisa Jiménez Martín (Director and Deputy Head of EU Affairs, Meta) echoed this message in the subsequent panel discussion, noting that openness allows SMEs to scale faster, providing a boost to the core of the European economy. Though broad consensus was reached on the desired approach to competitive technology markets, members of the panel voiced disagreement on the path forward for European telecoms in light of the EC’s white paper on digital infrastructure and Enrico Letta’s report on the European single market. Amon advocated consolidation of telecoms markets as an accelerator for innovation, while Cláudio Teixeira (Legal Officer, Digital and Consumer Rights, BEUC) characterised competition as “under attack in Europe” and warned that the EC was approaching its analysis of the state of telecoms from the wrong perspective by focusing on the needs of operators over consumers.
The DMA was largely applauded as progress, though enforcement and implementation raised both questions and concerns
All panellists offered some praise for the EU’s flagship digital regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), noting its general alignment with CODE’s priorities. However, a number of concerns were raised both in relation to the capacity of the bloc to effectively implement and enforce the law, as well as areas in which the law does not yet go far enough. Ana Miguel Dos Santos (MEP) noted that passing the law was really the beginning of the work to achieve the aims set out at the start of the legislative process and emphasised the importance of continued political will to see the DMA through its enforcement. Teixeira questioned the ability to act on such a political will in the face of limited resourcing for the regulators designated by Member States to oversee the DMA. Jiménez issued a similar warning that “a poorly resourced regulator is a risk for everyone” and considered that implementation activities would be just as important as the sanctioning procedures of enforcement. Carmelo Cennamo (Professor, Copenhagen Business School) agreed with the importance of monitoring and evaluation as an implementation effort but drew some scorn for suggesting that a “DMA 2.0” would be needed to further aims in relation to interoperability among other objectives. Looking ahead to further legislative efforts such as the AI Act, Jiménez also recommended that the EU dedicate some effort to better aligning the regulatory efforts laid out through its various digital frameworks as a complementary focus to the ongoing work to better align the single market.
