Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: The Digital Markets Act and the Whack-A-Mole Challenge 
Author-Name: Jens-Uwe Franck
Author-Email: jfranck@mail.uni-mannheim.de
Author-Name: Martin Peitz
Author-Email: martin.peitz@gmail.com
Classification-JEL: K21
Keywords: Digital Markets Act, anti-circumvention, antitrust law, price parity clauses, 
bundling, self-preferencing 

Abstract: The article addresses the implementation of the Digital Market Act’s rules on ‘anticircumvention’. 
We present an effects-based approach and propose a three-step procedure 
to identify whether a certain practice should be conceptualized as circumventing an 
obligation. We apply this approach to several practices suspected of circumventing the ban 
on parity clauses and analyse how our results fit into the Digital Market Act’s concept and 
instruments for avoiding circumvention. Moreover, we elaborate on the role that the anticircumvention 
rules may play in safeguarding the effectiveness of the restrictions on bundling 
and self-preferencing in ranking, thus illustrating how they may operate to future-proof the 
Digital Markets Act but also where their limitations lie. 


Note: 
Length: 39
Creation-Date: 2023-07
Revision-Date:
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp439
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2023_439