EU digital competition law – first fines imposed on Gatekeepers

The Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) has been in force since November 2022. The DMA is designed to limit the market power of core digital platforms, commonly referred to as “Gatekeepers”, within the EU’s digital single market and to foster fair competition in digital markets. To date, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta and Microsoft have been named as Gatekeepers.

In April 2025, the European Commission, for the first time under the DMA, imposed fines totalling €500 million on Apple and €200 million on Meta. The proceedings against Apple concern violations of the anti-steering obligation with respect to app developers in its App Store. App developers are not granted sufficient access to alternative distribution channels outside the App Store. Meta is accused of employing a “consent or pay” model, whereby users of Facebook and Instagram are required to either consent to the processing of their data or to switch to a fee-based, ad-free version. The Commission also obliged Apple and Meta to immediately cease the identified violations and prevent their recurrence (see our Noerr Insights).

These cases demonstrate that the European Commission is prepared to exercise the enforcement mechanisms conferred by the DMA against identified violations – notwithstanding political opposition from the United States. However, Apple and Meta have filed an action for annulment against the European Commission’s decisions. It remains to be seen whether the European Commission will prevail.

DMA’s effectiveness under review

In addition to imposing fines under the DMA, the European Commission also engages in a “regulatory dialogue” with the Gatekeepers. In April 2025, it discontinued proceedings against Apple following Apple’s commitment to revise their browser selection screen, thereby facilitating user choice of alternative default browsers.

In the course of 2025, the European Commission conducted a public consultation regarding the DMA. Companies, associations and EU citizens were granted until September to comment on the effectiveness of the DMA and the necessity for potential amendments. The results of this consultation, accompanied by the European Commission’s assessment, are scheduled to be published in May 2026 in the first official review of the DMA. It is expected that the European Commission will then also comment on the application of the DMA in the field of artificial intelligence.

AI Office – will its significance increase?

In November 2025, the European Commission introduced a draft “Digital Omnibus” package aimed at simplifying and harmonising the European digital legal framework, particularly with regard to the GDPR, the DMA and the AI Regulation. The “AI Office” established within the European Commission by the AI Regulation is to play a key role in supervising the use of artificial intelligence. Whether the proposed legislation will require the AI Office to be considered as a regulatory authority in future transactions, given the increasing significance of AI, remains to be determined.

This article is part of the Competition Outlook 2026. You can find all Competition Outlook articles here.