Re: what do folk think of the DMA's FRAND language?

Trying this query again now that we have the final text:
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/56086/st08722-xx22.pdf

I'm really interested in what folk think "general conditions of access" on
FRAND terms means, in practice.

c

On Fri, May 6, 2022 at 9:03 AM Chris Riley <mchris@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'd like to call your attention to Article 57 of the agreed-upon language
> for the Digital Markets Act, according to the attached copy of the
> "4-column" agreement, page 85 of the PDF: "For software application stores,
> online search engines and online social networking services identified
> pursuant to Article 3 (7), gatekeepers should publish and apply general
> conditions of access that should be fair, reasonable and
> non-discriminatory. These general conditions should provide for a Union
> based alternative dispute settlement mechanism that should be easily
> accessible, impartial, independent and, free of charge for the business
> user, without prejudice to the business user’s own cost and proportionate
> measures aimed at preventing the abuse of the dispute settlement mechanism
> by business users. The dispute settlement mechanism should be without
> prejudice to the right of business users to seek redress before judicial
> authorities in accordance with national and Union law."
>
> While obviously this falls short of the explicit requirements for
> mandatory interoperability provided for messaging, there is nevertheless
> very broad language in there, and I'm curious how the Europeans in this
> group in particular would interpret "general conditions of access". I'd
> love to have that mean "third-party accessible, documented APIs", even if
> they're not universally *free* APIs (because that doesn't scale well). The
> remaining, preexisting language of Article 57 offers a little more
> explanation of scope that seems to incline towards that direction, in that
> the article is meant to permit "business users" (aka downstream services?)
> to reach the platform's users on a fair basis.
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>