European Digital Markets Act (was Re: What we might produce)

> Il 06/12/2021 08:29 Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net> ha scritto:
> 
> #2 requires us to wait -- I'm not aware of any current, concrete proposals for interoperability remedies from regulators. Have I missed any?

There's several ones in the upcoming Digital Markets Act which is going to be voted upon in first reading next week by the European Parliament - they were expanded after significant pressure by NGOs (EDRi, EFF, Article 19...) and by the coalition of companies I co-founded. They may still be changed or removed in the rest of the legislative process, but here they are in their current version.


Article 2(23b) [definition]:

‘Interoperability’ means the ability to exchange information and mutually use the information which has been exchanged so that all elements of hardware or software relevant for a given service and used by its provider effectively work with hardware or software relevant for a given services provided by third party providers different from the elements through which the information concerned is originally provided. This shall include the ability to access such information without having to use an application software or other technologies for conversion.


Article 6(1)(f):

allow business users, and providers of services and providers of hardware free of charge access to and interoperability with the same hardware and software features accessed or controlled via an operating system, provided that the operating system is identified pursuant to Article 3(7), that are available to services or hardware provided by the gatekeeper. Providers of ancillary services shall further be allowed access to and interoperability with the same operating system, hardware or software features, regardless of whether those software features are part of an operating system, that are available to ancillary services provided by a gatekeeper. The gatekeeper shall not be prevented from taking indispensable measures to ensure that interoperability does not compromise the integrity of the operating system, hardware or software features provided by the gatekeeper or undermine end-user data protection or cyber security provided that such indispensable measures are duly justified by the gatekeeper.

["identified pursuant to Article 3(7)" = is a very big tech company with a gatekeeping position according to criteria laid out there; "ancillary services" = things like payments, identification, advertising or delivery]


Article 6(1)(fa):

allow any providers of number independent interpersonal communication services upon their request and free of charge to interconnect with the gatekeepers number independent interpersonal communication services identified pursuant to Article 3(7). Interconnection shall be provided under objectively the same conditions and quality that are available or used by the gatekeeper, its subsidiaries or its partners, thus allowing for a functional interaction with these services, while guaranteeing a high level of security and personal data protection.

["number-independent interpersonal communication services" = "instant messaging"]


Article 6(1)(fb):

allow any providers of social network services upon their request and free of charge to interconnect with the gatekeepers social network services identified pursuant to Article 3(7). Interconnection shall be provided under objectively the same conditions and quality that are available or used by the gatekeeper, its subsidiaries or its partners, thus allowing for a functional interaction with these services, while guaranteeing a high level of security and personal data protection. The implementation of this obligation is subjected to the Commission's specification under Article 10 (2) b.

[the difference with IM is that here there is an explicit request to the Commission to establish the conditions and the standards, while for IM the existing telco regulation applies, i.e. telco regulators will work on this]


Article 6a(1b):

The gatekeeper shall not engage in any behaviour discouraging interoperability by using technical protection measures, discriminatory terms of service, subjecting application programming interfaces to copyright or providing misleading information.


Recital 57a:

The implementation of gatekeepers’ obligations related to access, installation, portability or interoperability could be facilitated by the use of technical standards. In this respect the Commission should identify appropriate, widely-used ICT technical standards from standards organisations as foreseen under Article 13 of Regulation 1025/12 or where appropriate ask/request European standardisation bodies to develop them.

-- 
Vittorio Bertola | Head of Policy & Innovation, Open-Xchange
vittorio.bertola@open-xchange.com 
Office @ Via Treviso 12, 10144 Torino, Italy

Received on Monday, 6 December 2021 16:08:18 UTC