Press conference following the vote by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on the proposal for a regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector, otherwise referred to as the digital markets act (DMA).

digital agenda (T)

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Strasbourg

press conference

SCHWAB, Andreas (EPP, DE)

digital services act (T)

Press conference by Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), rapporteur, on the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15792245/I214187Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, It's my pleasure to see you that early in the morning here in Strasbourg under current conditions. It's true that we have had the main vote yesterday and it were all done with a very large majority and I think that's good news also for the final vote this morning that I hope will be unanimously done and therefore the European Parliament will give a very strong message to the Council.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Our message has several elements because the report, as proposed by the European Commission, is a large element of legislation, an important element of legislation. And therefore I would like to outline you the key points. The most important point, that you have already been able to read about that is that we have been discussing quite a long time, not only within the European Parliament, but also with the European Commission on what the future proofing of the scope of this law means.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, And we have finally been deciding that we have because we have a limited number of resources in the hands of the European Commission and the European Commission has never made any secret out of it. And we have decided that we have to make use of this limited number of resources in the best possible way. And therefore we have said that first of all, we want to make sure that national regulators on the basis of the proposal of the action committee of this House, the competition policy authorities have to form some sort of High-Level Expert Group of digital regulators to assist and to advise the European Commission.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Secondly, we have been strengthening also the role of national authorities by enforcing, by giving them the possibility to also make individual information requests to gatekeepers so that they are not only based on the existing competition policy procedures, but that they can also ask on behalf of the DMA scheme and gatekeepers to hand over information.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, And finally, we have been clarifying the cooperation between member states, authorities and the European Commission. But for you, most interestingly, is always the question of what matters in the names of companies. We have never been speaking about companies. I have to tell you the number of 80 billion was coming from two sides. But you see, our group has made that proposal in amendments, and you can imagine why, because it's there.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Not only American companies from accounting from the top and also the European Commission has updated them on the basis of the methodology they have been using for the initial value at their calculation. And like that, we were ending up at 80 billion as the value for market capitalization. We have also been agreeing on one core platform service for a gatekeeper, and we have been in addition, been agreeing that for the European Commission to include other companies under Article 36.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, And that is all the time possible for the European Commission. And we have to admit that we will put a high burden on the European Commission in applying the DMA. The European Commission can always add other companies if they have also multi homing or glomerulus strategies. As we have been proposing in Article three six, that's all focusing on the key players in the market using the resources best.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Apart from that, there are three other elements that I would like to put further focus on. Within that dos and don'ts of Article five and six, the rules that the European Commission has to apply, we have been already at the very beginning starting to elaborate rules for more transparency in advertising because recently there was a big debate about targeted advertising. I will come back to that later.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, But advertising in general misses in the digital sphere, a lot of transparency. And the new Article six one shows not only in the area of ad advertising the need to create more transparency. We have also introduced the front conditions for a certain number of services, maybe also for app stores. And I think therefore the bulk of conditions in Articles five and six will help a lot to improve what we have been doing before exposed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, So running behind competition at developments, the market developments now applying the rules ex-ante and giving the commission the chance to explain what the European rules on digital markets mean. It's true that there have been some specific calls from specific colleagues on a killer acquisitions and a very rigid system on making sure that also there can be a temporary ban on mergers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, And this has been taken up in Article 16. And it's also an important point that we want to make the European Commission as we want the European Commission making possible that not just in the area of the gatekeepers can be followed without a specific regime, but just by applying Article 22 of the merger regulation.

 Apart from that, and I know that it's about your question and your concerns, there was very clearly the strengthening role of the Parliament making sure that the commission can act at the same level with gatekeepers.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Therefore, we have been raising the penalty level. We have been making sure that structural measures can be done more easily and we have been integrating into the scope, a need or an obligation for more interoperability in the area of an ICC and in the area of targeted advertising. We want to make sure that GDPR rules are taken very seriously by all companies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, That will be a role for the DSA. But with specific regard to the DMA, the European Commission also can look for a renewed consent with one or two or whatever specific gatekeeper. If there is a doubt about GDP are being applied correctly, that's all. Thank you very much.

Q &amp; A (English) Question and answer on the negotiations that will take place after the start of the French Presidency in February. Moreover, the question also elaborates on the definition given by the DMA of "active user".