WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, NetChoice released a new policy brief, “Through The Regulatory Fog: How the EU’s Digital Markets Act Is Harming Consumers and Innovators,” examining the real-world effects the European Union’s signature tech regulation has had after it took effect. The brief finds that instead of delivering the more competitive, consumer-friendly internet Brussels promised, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) has made everyday digital tools slower and less useful, hidden small businesses from the customers who rely on them, delayed major product launches, and introduced new security vulnerabilities.
“Consumer protection shouldn’t come at the cost of the products people rely on every day,” said Tyler Fields, Government Affairs Associate at NetChoice and author of the policy brief.
“The DMA was sold as a way to give European consumers more choice and more control. In practice, it’s given them slower searches, fewer features, and less relevant results — while burying the small businesses it was supposed to help. This brief serves as a warning to U.S. lawmakers looking to import Europe’s failed economic policy stateside.”
Among the brief’s key findings:
- Two-thirds of Europeans who search online multiple times a day report that their searches now take longer, with 39% citing worse ad personalization, 35% a decline in map services, and 33% less relevant search results.
- EU hotel markets saw a 30% drop in click-throughs to business websites within three months of the DMA taking effect, compared with markets outside EU jurisdiction. Traffic losses like these hit small, local retailers and grocers who depend on organic digital traffic hardest.
- Major AI and productivity features, including Google’s AI Overviews, Apple Intelligence, Live Translation for AirPods, and iPhone-to-Mac screen mirroring, have all faced months-long delays or restrictions in the EU that users in the U.S. did not experience.
- Interoperability mandates are introducing new security problems, including weaker encryption as messages move across different platforms and expanded attack surfaces from unverified third-party code.
The DMA’s enforcement model, which relies on fixed market-share and revenue thresholds rather than economic analysis of consumer harm, has left regulators unable to distinguish between practices that genuinely limit competition and those that simply reflect integrated, convenient products. Without changes, Europe risks falling further behind the U.S. and China in AI and other emerging technology.
Read the full policy brief HERE and view the summary one-pager HERE.
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