The DMA, proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager last year, is designed to curb the powers of powerful digital corporations such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.
In June antitrust watchdogs from the EU member states wrote a letter lobbying for a greater role in enforcing the DMA citing their expertise in digital cases. However, an EU document issued by a working group of the EU Council declared, "The Commission is the sole authority empowered to enforce this Regulation.”
It added, "In order to support the Commission, member states may empower competent authorities enforcing competition rules to conduct investigative measures into possible infringements of obligations for gatekeepers.”
It also gave the EU executive full discretion as to decide whether to open an investigation.
EU ministers will have to formally ratify the agreement on November 25th, ahead of negotiations with EU lawmakers and the Commission before it can be laid on the statute book as the Digital Markets Act.
This news follows a three-hour session on Monday, in which Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen told MEPs that the bloc's proposed Digital Services Act (DSA), sister legislation to the DMA, was a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to create new rules for our online world."
Haugen told MEPs if the EU rules are done right, "you can create a game-changer for the world, you can force platforms to price in societal risk to their business operations so the decisions about what products to build and how to build them is not purely based on profit maximisation.
"And you can show the world how transparency, oversight and enforcement should work."
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