Digital Markets Act: everything that will change for users

An agreement was reached on Thursday 24 March between the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Commission on the DMA (Digital Markets Act). It will come into effect in a few months. A real revolution is underway for the general public as recalled on Twitter by the Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O, who participated in the negotiations as a representative of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Here are the highlights of the DMA.

• Messaging interoperability

Interoperability is one of the most discussed provisions during the negotiations. It will apply to the largest courier services. Long story short, if you don’t use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, you’ll still be able to send text messages, files, and make audio and video calls through another app like Signal, for example.

Please note that this measure will not be immediately and fully implemented! European Commissioner Thierry Breton stressed at a press conference that there were “features easier to apply than others for technical reasons”.
In particular, he mentioned the problem of compression and encoding of video calls, which must be of the same quality in upstream and in downstream. The players concerned will have a period of two to four years to resolve these technical problems.

• Native applications in the hot seat

The European Parliament was particularly keen on this. Users must be able to freely choose their browser, their search engine and their virtual assistant. As a result, these three categories of applications will no longer be installed by default with the operating system. Generally speaking, other native apps will need to be able to be removed by consumers.

• Alternative app stores

Users will be able to access the applications of their choice, either by downloading them directly through the Store of their smartphone’s OS, or through alternative application stores. It is the famous sideloading which forces operating systems to open up and which annoys Apple so much.

Moreover, under a principle of non-discrimination, third-party developers will have the right to offer their applications in return for payment in official stores. But this will only concern messaging and social networks at first.

• A plurality of payment systems

Developers will no longer have certain services like a payment system imposed on them to be listed in official app stores. As announced recently by Google and Spotify, as a single agreement, it should be possible to choose between at least two methods.

• More accessible contactless features

Access to certain auxiliary functions and components such as the NFC chip of smartphones or connected watches cannot be restricted for third-party developers. More contactless features should become accessible. This will be particularly the case for travelers from Ile de France who were complaining about not being able to access the Navigo pass from their iPhone.

• More advantageous commercial offers?

The ban on partners and/or developers from offering more advantageous commercial offers outside the platforms is over. This should make the prices more attractive.

• Less biased research

The search results of tech giants will be scrutinized. No more putting their own services or products at the top of the list as has happened in the past. Consumer choice will therefore be less influenced.

You will have understood: the list of new features is long and it will not be easy to set up technically. We can also expect a counter-attack from Big Tech, which will probably do their best to limit the impact on their turnover of these obligations that are now incumbent on them.
In the meantime, this text has the potential to change many things, especially since it is not alone. Another text, the Digital Services Act, or DSA, is also in its final stages, always with the aim of rebalancing the opposing forces, often to the detriment of the tech giants.