The EU’s anti-monopoly legislation is having little effect online, a European Commission competition economist said last week.
Even when given choices other than the default setting currently imposed by Apple, users do not take advantage of the choices the Digital Markets Act (DMA) provides, opting instead to stick with default settings.
Apple has asked the EC to repeal the digital competition law, but the Brussels executive said it has “absolutely no intention” of scrapping the DMA.
The EC continues to maintain that the choices opened up by the digital law are essential.
Talking to journalists, EC spokesperson Thomas Regnier said that companies such as Apple “want to defend their profits at all cost, but that’s not what the DMA is about … it is about giving consumers in the EU more choice and giving our businesses the possibility to compete fairly.”
Antonio Tarantino, chief economist for the EC’s directorate-general for competition said this illustrated why “regulation alone cannot address all problems in digital markets”.
“Behavioural biases among users make market failures worse. Users often don’t realise how much of their data is collected and monetised. Platforms profit from our predictable mistakes,” he told a Bruegel conference in Brussels,.
Mathias Celis, a behavioural science researcher at Ghent University, told Brussels Signal that even when options do exist, most people stick with the default. “Platforms benefit from this predictable behaviour,” he said, explaining that users routinely “overvalue” convenience.
Many are overwhelmed by information. They face dozens of decisions every time they go online and tend to underestimate “delayed” or “abstract risks”.
“Together these biases create a digital optical illusion: Consumers think they are choosing freely but the platform steers them,” Celis summarised.
Any law, in general terms, is not thought sufficient to push consumers to act rationally. The fact that companies can follow the guidelines of the law – in Apple’s case, by offering alternatives – while making these alternatives more complicated to access makes change less likely.
DMA is designed to help address that issue by banning misleading interface tricks and clarifying default options.
“It’s about making choices realistic, not taking them away,” Celis added.
The DMA applies to large platforms including Apple, Google, and Facebook-owner Meta. It forces them to open certain parts of their systems to competitors — for example, allowing alternative app stores or messaging services that work across platforms.
Apple has complained that these requirements interfere with its business, prompting the EC to clarify how companies can comply.
Speaking at the Bruegel conference, Coco Carmona, executive director of CODE, a coalition of companies promoting open and competitive digital markets, said she was in favour of some aspects of the DMA, as it gives consumers more meaningful control over their digital choices.
“Openness from day one means users are not stuck in one system by default,” she said, adding that interoperability and clear options made it easier for smaller companies to compete and offer new services, giving users real alternatives instead of what she also called “illusory” choices.
Celis added that the law can make users “fully aware of long-term risks or the full consequences of their data being used”.
The EC is now preparing for lengthy enforcement battles with Big Tech as cases regarding Apple and Meta advance.
