The Conversational Nature of the DMA – A Taxonomy of Actors, Conversations and Purposes Digital Markets Act; Big Tech; gatekeepers; conversational regulation; anticipatory governance; EU competition law.

Abstract

Big Tech corporations have created important spatial and temporal problems, such as the spillover of market power into political power or their lifespan and legacy. Competition law – the long-perceived archnemesis of bigness – appears to be unfit for addressing these challenges and ensuring that digital markets produce new entrants. Consequently, the European Union has adopted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation based on a novel regulatory strategy. This strategy – called here a “conversational approach” – is understood as a chain of conversations among a diverse range of actors and areas of law for the purpose of building an “ethics of the future”. The conversational approach relies on a double hybridisation, one between competition law and regulation, and a second between competition law and the three elements of anticipatory governance – foresight, engagement and integration. What distinguishes the conversational approach to regulation is its promise to address both the spatial and temporal issues raised by gatekeepers.