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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA) target many of the same technology companies, but they regulate different problems. The DSA focuses on platform safety, illegal content, advertising transparency, consumer protection and systemic risk. The DMA focuses on economic power: whether designated “gatekeepers” use their control over app stores, search, operating systems, advertising and other digital gateways unfairly.
That distinction matters. A company can face DSA duties because its service is large and risky, while facing DMA obligations because a particular service gives it entrenched market power. As of August 16, 2026, enforcement has moved well beyond consultation: Apple, Meta and Google have faced major DMA penalties, while DSA proceedings and decisions have targeted platforms including X, AliExpress, Temu and TikTok.
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The difference in one sentence
The DSA regulates how digital services operate; the DMA regulates how the biggest digital gatekeepers use their market position.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesThe laws overlap because the same company may operate a social network, marketplace, search engine, app store or advertising business. But their legal theories are different:
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- DSA: Is the service operating safely, transparently and responsibly?
- DMA: Is a powerful gateway using its position to disadvantage businesses, competitors or users?
They are not two versions of the same law, and neither makes every aspect of Big Tech’s business illegal.
Why the EU created two laws
The laws emerged from one broad political diagnosis: a small number of platforms had become essential infrastructure for communication, commerce, search, advertising and app distribution. But the resulting problems fell into two categories.
The DSA addresses the social and civic effects of scale, including illegal goods and content, opaque recommendation systems, targeted advertising, child safety, weak appeals processes, disinformation-related risks and limited visibility into platform operations.
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The DMA addresses the economic effects of gateway power, including app-store restrictions, self-preferencing, tying and bundling, switching barriers, restrictions on business-user communications, control over business-generated data and ecosystem lock-in.
Who is covered?
DSA: broad coverage, stronger rules for the largest services
The DSA applies in layers:
- All intermediary services have baseline obligations.
- Hosting services and online platforms have additional duties.
- Online marketplaces face rules concerning traders, products and consumer protection.
- Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) face the most demanding requirements, including systemic-risk assessments, mitigation measures and independent audits.
The Commission directly supervises the largest platforms and search engines. National Digital Services Coordinators supervise other providers. The Commission’s designation list was updated on July 24, 2026, and includes services such as Amazon Store, Apple’s App Store, Google Search, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Booking.com, AliExpress, Temu and WhatsApp. The list concerns designated services, not simply entire corporate groups. See the Commission’s current designation list.
DMA: designated gatekeepers and specific services
The DMA is narrower. It applies to companies designated as gatekeepers in relation to listed core platform services. These may include search engines, social networks, app stores, operating systems, online advertising services, browsers, video-sharing platforms, number-independent messaging services and cloud services.
Designation is service-specific. The relevant question is not simply “Is Apple covered?” but “Which Apple service is designated, and which obligation applies to it?”
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe DMA’s quantitative framework generally considers user numbers, business users, market position and durability. Its familiar presumptive thresholds include approximately 45 million monthly active end users and 10,000 yearly active business users, alongside turnover or market-capitalization indicators. These thresholds inform the designation process; they are not a substitute for the Commission’s legal assessment. The European Commission is the DMA’s sole enforcer. See the DMA portal and the DMA text.
What the DSA changes
Reporting, explanations and appeals
Platforms must provide mechanisms for users to report illegal content and must explain significant moderation decisions. Users also receive internal complaint and redress routes, with additional mechanisms involving trusted flaggers and authorities.
The DSA distinguishes illegal content from content that is harmful, offensive or misleading but lawful. It does not create a general EU power to remove every harmful post or establish a blanket ban on misinformation. The underlying illegality of material is generally determined under other EU or national law; the DSA regulates the platform’s procedures, transparency and risk management.
Advertising and recommender systems
Platforms must provide more transparency about advertisements and comply with restrictions on certain forms of targeted advertising. The largest services must assess systemic risks arising from their recommender systems and take reasonable mitigation measures.
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Children and marketplaces
The DSA places particular emphasis on minors’ safety. It also imposes marketplace-related obligations concerning trader traceability, illegal products, advertising and consumer information.
For sellers, that can mean more identity checks, documentation requests, product restrictions and account controls. For consumers, the intended benefits include better visibility into sellers and stronger action against illegal or unsafe goods.
Audits, researchers and penalties
VLOPs and VLOSEs must publish transparency information, undergo independent audits and provide regulated access processes for researchers. The Commission’s enforcement framework allows non-compliance fines of up to 6% of a provider’s worldwide annual turnover. Information-related penalties and periodic penalties have separate limits; periodic penalties may reach 5% of average daily worldwide turnover in specified circumstances. See the Commission’s DSA enforcement framework.
What the DMA changes
Anti-steering
A gatekeeper cannot unnecessarily prevent developers or businesses from telling customers about cheaper or alternative purchasing options outside the platform.
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On April 23, 2025, the Commission fined Apple €500 million over anti-steering non-compliance. On July 23, 2026, it fined Google €430 million over restrictions affecting developers’ ability to direct Google Play users to alternative offers.
A steering right does not automatically mean lower prices. Developers may keep the savings, spend them on distribution or marketing, or decide that external payment systems create too much fraud, tax, refund and customer-support complexity.
Self-preferencing
Where the DMA prohibits it, gatekeepers cannot give their own services more favorable ranking or treatment than competing services.
On July 23, 2026, Google received a separate €460 million penalty concerning self-preferencing in Google Search. The Commission said Google favored its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, over third-party services. Together with the Google Play decision, the total fine was €890 million. See the Commission announcement.
Data combination and “consent or pay”
The DMA restricts combining personal data across designated services without the required user choice and consent conditions.
On April 23, 2025, the Commission fined Meta €200 million after finding that its model did not provide the required equivalent, less-data-intensive option and did not allow users to freely consent to combining their personal data. This was not a general ban on every ad-free subscription. The issue was whether Meta’s particular design complied with the DMA.
Interoperability, portability and switching
The DMA can require targeted interoperability and data-portability measures. Examples identified in the Commission’s review materials include data portability, eSIM transfers between iPhones and Android devices and easier switching between operating systems and browsers.
These obligations are not a requirement to open every proprietary system completely. They are service-specific, technically bounded and subject to implementation processes. Interoperability can improve choice, but it also creates authentication, abuse, privacy and cybersecurity risks. The Commission’s review acknowledges both practical progress and continuing technical difficulties, including possible attempts to circumvent obligations. See the DMA review questions and answers.
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Enforcement scoreboard
| Company | Law | Date | Conduct | Status and consequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | DMA | April 23, 2025 | Anti-steering restrictions | Final non-compliance decision; €500 million fine |
| Meta | DMA | April 23, 2025 | Choice between personalized advertising and a less-data-intensive alternative | Final non-compliance decision; €200 million fine |
| X | DSA | 2025 | Transparency shortcomings | DSA non-compliance decision and fine |
| Temu | DSA | May 28, 2026 | Marketplace compliance | €200 million fine recorded by the Commission |
| AliExpress | DSA | July 20, 2026 | Marketplace compliance | €550 million fine recorded by the Commission |
| DMA | July 23, 2026 | Search self-preferencing and Google Play steering restrictions | €890 million total fine: €460 million and €430 million | |
| TikTok | DSA | July 24, 2026 | Safety of minors’ accounts | Preliminary findings, not a final infringement decision |
These categories matter. A request for information is not a violation finding; preliminary findings are not final decisions; binding commitments are not the same as fines. Yet commitments can still materially change a product’s operation.
What users may actually notice
Search and discovery
Users may see changes to the ranking and display of a gatekeeper’s own vertical services, alternative services, defaults and choice screens. The realistic outcome is not that Google disappears, but that ranking rules, links, defaults and switching tools gradually change.
DMA enforcement may improve competitive conditions for specialist search, shopping, travel and other services. It does not guarantee that publishers will regain lost traffic, particularly as zero-click search and AI-generated answers continue to change discovery.
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App purchases
Developers may have more freedom to explain external purchasing options. That could reduce dependence on platform billing, but it can also create a more fragmented experience and shift fraud prevention, refunds, taxes and support responsibilities to developers.
Advertising and privacy
Users may receive more explicit choices about data use and see less cross-service data combination. Possible trade-offs include less personalized advertising, more subscription prompts and more complicated consent interfaces. The DMA does not prohibit all personalized advertising.
Social networks and moderation
The DSA can produce clearer removal explanations, stronger appeal routes, additional scrutiny of recommender systems and more protections for minors. It does not guarantee that every moderation decision will be correct, popular or consistent across services.
Marketplaces
Consumers may see more seller information and stronger interventions against illegal products. Sellers should expect greater scrutiny of identity, product documentation, advertising claims and regulated goods.
Who benefits—and who bears the cost?
Developers
App developers should examine steering rights, alternative billing, platform terms, ranking exposure, data access and interoperability. The key question is not simply whether they can leave an app store, but whether an alternative channel is commercially worthwhile after accounting for security, support, payments, taxes, refunds and user trust.
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Advertisers and adtech companies
Advertisers must track disclosure, targeting, minors’ protections, sensitive categories, ad repositories and measurement changes. The DSA emphasizes transparency and systemic risk, while the DMA can constrain how a gatekeeper combines data or exploits its position.
Publishers and competing services
Google’s July 2026 decision makes ranking and self-preferencing especially important. Publishers and vertical-search providers should watch whether specialized results receive comparable treatment and whether traffic changes after ranking adjustments. A legal finding against self-preferencing does not promise restored traffic.
Marketplace sellers
Sellers may face more documentation, identity verification and product-safety checks, but may also benefit from greater trust and more formal notice and appeal processes.
Platforms and regulators
Platforms bear the direct costs of product redesign, audits, reporting and legal compliance. Regulators must obtain reliable internal data, distinguish genuine compliance from cosmetic changes and enforce rules quickly enough to matter. Compliance may also produce EU-specific settings, contracts, payment flows or safety features rather than a global redesign.
How to judge whether the laws are working
Headline fines are only one measure. More meaningful questions include:
- For users: Can people switch services? Are alternative purchase routes usable? Are consent choices meaningful? Are moderation explanations understandable? Are minors safer?
- For businesses: Are platform fees lower? Can companies communicate with customers without retaliation? Is data access timely and useful? Are alternative payment and distribution channels viable?
- For regulators: Are investigations fast enough? Can circumvention be detected? Are remedies specific and measurable? Can regulators verify platform claims?
The main failure modes are formal rights that are difficult to use, choice screens that produce fatigue rather than choice, developers who cannot afford alternative infrastructure, unusable data-access systems and platforms that technically comply while preserving their commercial advantage.
The bottom line for Big Tech and its users
Europe is not abolishing platform power. It is trying to change the conditions under which that power operates.
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The DSA is building a supervisory system around safety, transparency, moderation, advertising and systemic risk. The DMA is attacking specific economic practices associated with gatekeeper control, including self-preferencing, anti-steering, restrictive data combination and switching barriers.
The laws have already produced meaningful penalties and product changes. But their success will be measured less by the size of fines than by whether users can exercise real choice, developers can reach customers on fairer terms, sellers can operate safely and competing services can obtain usable access. The central question now is whether gatekeepers will make substantive changes—or preserve the same advantages through more sophisticated compliance strategies.
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