January 13, 2022
TechTarget recently published insight featuring Marshall Van Alstyne, Professor of Information Systems, discussing the plans of the European Union to pass the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) this year.
The Digital Markets Act, introduced in 2020, specifically targets the practices of “gatekeeper online platforms,” helping to protect users online by providing transparency into how content algorithms work. The European Union has plans to pass the DMA and the DSA sometime before July, and if passed, the legislation will be fully implemented by 2023. Marshall elaborates on the goals of the DMA- to create fairness and value- but but believes that as currently drafted, it will fail in its objective of value creation.
“Startups could access the data without having to remove it from its original location, they could just get API permission and start to access large quantities of it in location. You should be able to combine more data sets with users’ permission to create more value, to create more of the network effects.”
Marshall Van Alstyne
Questrom Professor of Management in Information Systems
While he speaks to the weaknesses of the DMA, he also expands on what the legislation is getting right. With the draft DMA including a concept called in situ data rights, users will have the power to keep their data in one location and determine what third-party companies can access that data. Marshall speaks to the value of in situ data rights, stating,