The Digital Markets Act: Time for a Reset

Maybe the EU should actually foster an environment where tech companies can grow and compete.

I'm sure there's some political push or at least sign of support behind it happening now. "Our big beautiful tech companies blah blah blah..."

https://newgtldprogram.icann.org/en

But it’s all cool, we are standing up for the tech feudalists.

I’m not arguing the status who is good, more “is it too late to fix?”

We need a full reset from them. Countries should get their powers back. Take it back from the non elected EU bureaucrats.

There are some very worrisome things going on in the EU with Chat Control, Ministry of Truth, Digital ID Systems, and Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Each individual piece will be introduced to fix something or prevent something. But it is a slippery slope to also use it for something else, and more and more. Before we know it we will live in a continent that is ruled by an authoritarian mob like in China.

The EU has been trying to do that for as long as I can remember and they have little to show for it. What reason is there to believe this will suddenly produce useful results?

I don't think you appreciate quite how much easier it is to write down rules and use your populace as economic hostages to get fines out of companies created in places with good economic policies, than it is to make your own stuff internally.

Saying that they need first for there to be no alternatives and then they will produce something better should raise some major red flags. You wouldn't accept an exclusivity contract of that nature with your grocery store but accepting it for your communications? Not to mention the real reason for such protectionism goes unspoken: more government spying and backdoors and more censorship and control. That was why China rolled their own.

Because they pay for it. Sincerely, the EC.

No thanks, just fund local-only and self-hosted open source instead.

It’s not like the DMA outlaws software. It deals with certain practices, and makes certain business models pretty untenable.

But it doesn’t just ban everything.

- My mobile operator wanted to charge me $6/MB for data roaming, until the anti-business EU regulation killed the golden goose. Roaming is free across EU. The mobile operator is still in business.

- USB-C not just on iPhone, but also all the crappy gadgets that used to be micro-USB. Consumer prices on electronics probably rose by $0.01 per unit.

- Chip & pin and NFC contactless payments were supported everywhere many years before ApplePay adopted them. European regulators forced banks to make fraud their problem and cooperate to fix it.

- The card payment system got upgraded despite card interchange fees being legally capped to ~0.3%. The bureaucrats killed an innovative business model of ever-increasing merchant fees given back to card owners as cashback, which made everyone else paying the same prices with cash the suckers subsidising the card businesses.

- Apple insinuates they only give 1 year of warranty, but it magically becomes 2 years if you remind them they're in the EU.

Lmao this is just such a big pile of nothing. Lets let Google and Apple run unchecked so consumers can see a link to a hotel. Yes. Good deal.

curious to read what arguments you have against or in favor?

From what I understand, in European countries (inc EU) both public and private sector rely predominantly on US and Asian imports for Computer Hardware, Software and Digital Services.

With DMA, they're looking to level the playing fields for local entrepreneurs, and likewise for small firms from say, developing economies such as in Africa or Middle East for example (the neighborhood).

Also worth noting, that, Europe has a massive problem with brain-drain and a rapidly aging population. If local entrepreneurs can't compete with Asian or US tech giants, they have to move to Asia or the USA.

However, on the other side, if the EU does manage to drive Apple or Google out I wonder if that would cause them real problems from citizens.

Regulations can certainly be nice but at a certain point people may get very annoyed by the results to the point of wanting them removed, even if they’re doing a good job at exactly what they were designed for. Simply because they’re inconveniencing people through the fault of the company making the device.

If you were to run a poll what percent of people would be willing to just give up the smartphone brand they like for something that isn’t android or iOS for the sake of DMA enforcement?

The drug maybe too strong to resist.