Officials from the Italian and the Greek competition authorities have said their agencies were prepared to cooperate with implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) when their national governments approve their agencies’ appointment for the purpose. 

The agreement reached on the DMA in April by the EU’s co-legislators foresees the European Commission (EC) as the sole decision-maker under the ‘big tech’-focused legislation, but it envisions a cooperation role for the EU’s national competition authorities (NCAs) to play in enforcement. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the Lear Competition Festival, Andrea Pezzoli, the director general of Italy’s Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), said that a formal decision designating the Italian authority’s role under the DMA would not come before a new government has been established. National elections take place in Italy on Sunday (25 September). 

But Pezzoli said that the agency has established strong internal digital capabilities, including on artificial intelligence, and was prepared for the DMA implementation role.  

Meanwhile Ioannis Lianos, the head of the Greek competition authority, said he expected a government decision to come before the end of next month. The Hellenic Competition Commission has a strong internal digital unit, Lianos said, adding that it was well-placed for a cooperation role on DMA enforcement. 

Pezzoli said that Italy’s Autorità garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) liaised with the EC before it opened in July an abuse of dominance investigation into Google on suspicion that the company hindered interoperability in data sharing with other platforms, to ensure that the case did not overlap with the EC’s nascent DMA enforcement. 

Google is suspected by the AGCM of stifling interoperability in the sharing of data on its own platform with other platforms, in particular with data app Weople, operated by Hoda. 

Elsewhere, during an enforcers panel, panelists from Spain and France agreed that the DMA would complement existing competition rules, and that the scope for continuing enforcement under Article 102 TFEU would remain. 

Read more PaRR articles from the Lear conference here:

EC mulling leniency applicants immunity from damages – Lear Rome

Greek petroleum market study imminent – Lear Rome

Italian, Greek agencies ready themselves for DMA cooperation – Lear Rome

EU FSR draft implementing regulation to be published in December, says official – Lear Rome