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The European Union has reportedly decided to make the Digital Markets Act into law by the end of March 2022, to scrutinise bigtech companies, including Apple, Google, and Amazon, according to phonearena.com.

The Digital Markets Act is a proposal that investigates giving smaller companies more competitive power in comparison to big tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Meta. This specific proposal is something Apple has disputed for quite some time, listing the possible security issues the act could cause. This proposal is reportedly like the bill that US-based officials have proposed that would force Apple to allow side-loading of apps (basically, installing apps from places other than the App Store) on iPhones and iPads, Phone Arena reports.

The Digital Markets Act aims to create a competition-friendly environment in digital markets. Measures include forcing Apple and Google to allow users to uninstall pre-installed apps on their devices, as well as forcing them to eliminate self-preferencing in search results. Beyond that, these companies should provide more transparency over advertising metrics, according to Phone Arena.

The Act was first proposed by Margarethe Vestager, and she stated that there is currently some good progress in negotiations, and it seems the Commission might as well aim to reach a political agreement on the proposal by the end of March. She also added that if this happens, the Act would be legislation ‘with almost the speed of lightning’. The Act was introduced back in 2020, alongside another antitrust proposal, called the Digital Services Act, which addresses how big content sharing platforms manage illegal and harmful content, and requires them to moderate such content quickly, Phone Arena states.

Both proposals reportedly come with severe penalties for companies that choose not to comply. The process of making them into laws, however, has been slowed down by multiple disputes.

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