First bloom: increased consumer choice after eighteen months of the DMA

Over the past couple of decades, Big Tech companies have increasingly limited competition in digital markets at the expense of consumers, restricting choice and access to innovation. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is an attempt to make digital markets fairer and more open to challenger companies.  

Is the Digital Markets Act effective? In July 2025, the European Commission opened a consultation to gather feedback on the impact and effectiveness of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and its ability to face emerging challenges such as new technologies. Our review shared with the Commission and summarized in our new report offers a snapshot of how the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is performing eighteen months in.  

So, what are the benefits of the DMA for consumers? Our new report shows the first concrete benefits the DMA has delivered for consumers eighteen months into its application, which include: 

• A choice screen to select your preferred default browser on iOS devices.
• Choice over the app you want to use by default on iOS devices across a wide variety of categories.   
• The ability to make contactless payments on iPhones without going through Apple Pay.
• The ability to create a Google account without requiring a Gmail account.  

The report also outlines the ongoing areas of suspected non-compliance under the DMA by gatekeepers that the European Commission must tackle, how BEUC is pushing for effective compliance by the gatekeepers, and an assessment of how to take the DMA's enforcement to the next level and boost the benefits for consumers.