Vice President Dr Wilhelm Eschweiler appointed member of EU advisory body for Digital Markets Act
Year of issue 2023
Date of issue 2023.03.06
Dr Wilhelm Eschweiler, Vice President at the Bundesnetzagentur, has been appointed by BEREC, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, as a high-level representative for the EU advisory body for the Digital Markets Act.
"I am very pleased to be able to advise and support the European Commission in the application of the Digital Markets Act as a member of the high-level group together with my colleagues from BEREC,"
said Dr Wilhelm Eschweiler, Bundesnetzagentur Vice President. "It is important for the regulatory authorities' voice to be heard and for us to be able to contribute the knowledge we have acquired over many years in the context of such a key element of the European Union's digital strategy. With the transition to a digital society, we need to make sure that the benefits of fair competition among all undertakings can continue to be enjoyed by businesses and consumers. The regulatory authorities such as the Bundesnetzagentur, which has successfully ensured a level playing field in the telecommunications sector since 1998, are best placed for this."
High-level group
The Digital Markets Act provides for a high-level group to advise the European Commission on the application of the provisions. The high-level group is composed of representatives of the European Data Protection Supervisor and European Data Protection Board, the European Competition Network, the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network and the European Regulatory Group of Audiovisual Media Regulators, alongside representatives of BEREC.
BEREC is represented by the five members of the Mini-Board (BEREC's management level), which Dr Eschweiler joined last week as one of the Vice-Chairs, together with another elected representative of an EU regulatory authority.
Digital Markets Act
The aim of the Digital Markets Act is to regulate operators of very large online platforms to ensure in future that these operators cannot exploit their market power to the detriment of competitors and customers. Such platforms can take the form of search engines, online app stores, operating systems and messaging services, etc. If an operator meets certain criteria, for example relating to annual turnover or the number of users in the European Union, the operator is considered to be a gatekeeper, for whom special rules apply.
These include rules on the gatekeepers' use of customers' personal data and rules prohibiting gatekeepers from preventing business users from marketing products or services through other sales channels. Other rules include requirements for gatekeepers to allow end-users to install third-party programs and uninstall the platform's own applications and rules concerning the interoperability of number-independent interpersonal communications services