MEPs Demand Tougher Digital Markets Act Enforcement Amid External Pushback, AI Search Tools Under Scrutiny
The European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee issued on 30 April 2026 a strong demand that the European Commission deliver timely and effective enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) against the seven gatekeepers currently designated under the regulation. MEPs warn that external pushback — particularly from the US administration and from gatekeeper companies themselves — must not weaken European regulatory ambition. The resolution also calls for closer scrutiny of AI-driven search tools and cloud services, the next frontier of digital market dominance.
The DMA in 2026
The Digital Markets Act, in force since 2 May 2023, designates as gatekeepers the largest online platforms whose dominance in core platform services creates structural market problems. Seven gatekeepers are currently designated: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking, Meta, Microsoft and ByteDance. They are subject to a list of do’s and don’ts covering interoperability, app stores, data combination, self-preferencing and tying. Three years in, the Commission has launched multiple non-compliance investigations and imposed the first DMA fines in 2025.
External pushback
The MEP resolution implicitly addresses the diplomatic pressure applied by the United States — both under the Biden and now the second Trump administration — pushing the EU to soften DMA enforcement against US tech companies. President Trump has explicitly tied tariff policy to digital regulation, threatening retaliation against European fines. Parliament’s response is unambiguous: “DMA enforcement is a matter of EU law and EU sovereignty. It cannot be subject to bilateral trade negotiations.”
AI search tools and cloud services
The resolution opens a new front by demanding that the Commission examine the application of DMA principles to AI-driven search tools — including ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot — and to cloud computing services. The concern is twofold. First, AI search risks displacing traditional web search without inheriting the same accountability frameworks. Second, the cloud market is dominated by three US-based hyperscalers (Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud) representing approximately 70% of European cloud revenues. MEPs ask the Commission to assess whether designation as gatekeepers should follow.
Specific enforcement priorities
Parliament identifies five priority enforcement areas for 2026. First, Apple’s App Store policies, particularly the so-called Core Technology Fee that critics argue undermines DMA principles. Second, Google’s display advertising stack, where structural separation remains contested. Third, Meta’s pay-or-consent model and its compatibility with DMA Article 5(2). Fourth, Amazon Marketplace’s alleged self-preferencing. Fifth, Microsoft’s tying of Teams with Office 365 in business and educational markets. Each of these is at various stages of investigation or formal proceedings.
The penalty framework
The DMA allows the Commission to impose fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover for first violations and 20% for repeat offences. In extreme cases of systematic non-compliance, the Commission can impose structural remedies including divestiture. Through 2025, the Commission has issued initial non-compliance decisions against Apple and Meta, with fines in the hundreds of millions. Parliament urges the Commission to use the full range of DMA tools, including periodic penalty payments for ongoing breaches.
The political stakes
For the EU, DMA enforcement is the proof point of European digital sovereignty. Failure to enforce vigorously would signal that European regulatory ambition collapses under external pressure — undermining the credibility of the AI Act, the Data Act and the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act. MEPs make this explicit in the resolution. Commissioner Teresa Ribera, who oversees competition enforcement, has signalled that 2026 will be a decisive year for the DMA’s enforcement record.
