In Short
The Development: The European Commission
("EC") recently released two long-awaited legislative
proposals, the Digital Services Act ("DSA") and Digital
Markets Act ("DMA"), that would significantly increase
the EC's regulatory oversight of online platform companies
(previewed in our
June 2020 Commentary).
Background: The EC and Member State antitrust
authorities have investigated whether certain conduct of online
platforms is anticompetitive, including for example, sharing user
data across distinct online services, preferencing a platform's
own products above competing businesses on the platform, or using
data from businesses on the platform to compete against those
businesses.