The EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) obliges large messenger services to be interoperable from 2024. Ideally, consumers can then communicate between messenger services across providers. The European Commission should specify the technical framework for data protection and security.
The body of European regulators for electronic communications (BEREC) held a public consultation on questions regarding the specific implementation. In its statement on the consultation, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) calls for framework specifications for the technical design, data protection and data security from the European Commission. Large platforms should not be allowed to design the specific design of interoperable systems on their own. With the framework specifications, the European Commission is intended to prevent large messenger services from choosing the technical design in such a way that they themselves benefit from it unilaterally, to the detriment of competitors and users. The obligation for large messenger services to make their services interoperable is expected to take effect from March 2024.
Among other things, the vzbv demands:
- The European Commission must present framework specifications for the technical design of the interoperability obligation of the DMA.
- The interoperability obligation must not lead to a weakening of the level of data protection and data security for users who consciously use a data protection-friendly service.
- The legislator must ensure that a uniform standard encryption protocol becomes binding in order to guarantee the confidentiality of communication.
