This article
undertakes an analysis of the individual goals of the competition rules, the
Digital Service Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) and assesses whether as
a trio they can cooperate to successfully develop online safety. With the
adoption of the DSA and DMA, a necessary shift has taken place in the
regulation of online markets, from self-regulation to coregulation. However, as
is argued in the article, the competition rules will need to follow suit in
this shift to avoid conflicts with the goals of the DMA and DSA. The article
demonstrates how the goals of the DMA and DSA are carefully based on core
competition law principles, therefore allowing for alignment of the three
legislative domains. Yet the main obstacle to ensure alignment seems to be the
consumer welfare approach adopted and heavily relied upon by the Commission
over the last two decades. This approach restricts a broader application of the
competition rules to socio-economic issues such as online safety and appears at
odds with the ‘can do attitude’ that the Commission has regarding the strength
of the competition rules. This attitude has supported the liberation of certain
industries and allowed for second-tier regulation of other areas of law,
indicating that the competition rules can be a useful tool to online safety.
With careful tweaking of the competition law goals to allow for the
consideration of broader socioeconomic issues, this article argues that
cooperation between the DSA, DMA and the competition rules in the online market
may be successful.