The institutional
setting of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) (Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and
fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and
(EU) 2020/1828, OJ L 265, 12 October 2022.) reverses the rationale of the
application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union, OJ C 326, 26 October 2012.) to make profound changes in digital
business models. The deterrencebased framework gives way to an instrument based
on cooperative engagement between private and public actors. Private undertakings,
termed as gatekeepers, bear the burden of submitting compliance reports to the
European Commission detailing their technical implementation of the regulation.
Following the
compliance reports submitted by the seven gatekeepers in 2024, the paper seeks
to clarify their role as stemming from their practical significance. To do
that, the paper sets out the legal framework and requirements surrounding the
submissions of those compliance reports. The paper then maps out the
gatekeeper’s compliance strategies and meters them against the benchmark of
their credibility. By doing so, the paper considers a nuanced perspective of
the procedural yardstick the enforcer should apply in its future enforcement
actions.