The Competition Council conveys that the new regulatory framework regarding Digital Markets Act (DMA) represents an opportunity for the IT sector in Romania and beyond, given that application developers, businesses that use marketplace platforms, respectively any other users of businesses or consumers will be able to benefit from them.

The new regulations establish that certain practices of digital platforms with significant market power, such as major online intermediary services, search engines, app stores, social networking services, etc., will be considered illegal under all circumstances and prohibited accordingly.

For example, practices such as blocking users from uninstalling pre-installed applications, prioritizing the platform's own products over competitors' products, tracking end-users outside the platform for targeted advertising without consent, and obliging app developers to use specific services (e.g., payment or identification systems) to be listed in app stores will be prohibited.

Moreover, the major platforms will be required to allow business users to access the data generated from their use of the platform, enable business users to promote their offers and conclude contracts with their customers outside the platform, provide advertising companies with the necessary tools and information to conduct their own independent verification of their advertisements, and ensure fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory access conditions for commercial users.

"The ultimate goal is to bring the power balance between users and major platforms into a more balanced area, in order to avoid situations where discrimination, exploitation, or exclusion from the market systematically occur. We will work with the European Commission officials to ensure that the new regulatory framework is respected. We will also continue to apply traditional competition rules when we consider it appropriate," said Bogdan Chirițoiu, President of the Romanian Competition Council. He was part of the delegation representing the European Competition Network at the High-Level Group meeting to discuss common issues related to the implementation of new rules to ensure fair and competitive online markets.

The Digital Markets Act aims to create a competitive, fair, and transparent online environment by imposing specific obligations, leaving the actual implementation to the member states.

At the national level, the Romanian Competition Council is responsible for monitoring the activities of online platforms and can apply sanctions if they do not behave fairly and transparently towards the companies using their services, thereby implementing the European Regulation in the field, also known as Platform to Business - P2B.

The Regulation aims to protect businesses using online intermediary services and online search engines in their relationship with any provider of such services as more and more businesses migrate to the online environment.