EU digital enforcement agency proposed to unify oversight of 315 regulators

The proposed EU digital enforcement agency would replace a patchwork of national authorities with a single point of oversight for major platforms. For streaming services and tech giants, the current fragmentation creates high compliance overhead and legal uncertainty as different member states interpret the DSA and AI Act inconsistently. Centralization could reduce these friction points but may also lead to more aggressive, unified antitrust actions that were previously stalled by national interests or geopolitical trade concerns. Industry strategists should monitor the upcoming EU budget negotiations for funding allocations that would signal the formal start of this regulatory consolidation.

The push for centralized EU digital oversight has gained momentum as enforcement gaps become visible across multiple regulatory frameworks. The Digital Markets Act, which entered full force in May 2023, has so far produced only a handful of formal proceedings against gatekeepers, with the European Commission opening its first DMA non-compliance investigation against Apple in March 2024 over App Store steering restrictions. That single case took nearly a year to initiate after the DMA's obligations became binding, illustrating the institutional capacity constraints that Kai Zenner and Maria Koomen's paper highlights. Meanwhile, the Digital Services Act's enforcement against very large online platforms has been similarly slow, with the Commission's first preliminary findings under the DSA issued against TikTok in February 2025 for failures in addictive design protections and advertising transparency. These early enforcement actions demonstrate that even with dedicated Commission teams, the current structure struggles to keep pace with the volume of obligations across 27 member states.

On the business and regulatory front, the AI Act's phased implementation timeline adds urgency to the centralization debate. The AI Act's prohibitions on unacceptable-risk systems took effect in February 2025, followed by general-purpose AI obligations in August 2025, with full application scheduled for August 2026. Each phase requires new supervisory capacity at both EU and national levels. Maroš Šefčovič, who oversees digital policy as European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, has signaled support for streamlining digital governance structures as part of the broader Digital Omnibus simplification package announced in early 2025. That package proposes merging certain reporting obligations across the DSA, DMA, and AI Act to reduce administrative burden on companies, a goal that aligns with the centralization thesis of Zenner and Koomen's proposal. Google, one of the most affected gatekeepers under the DMA, has publicly called for consistent interpretation of EU digital rules across member states, arguing that divergent national approaches create legal uncertainty for platform operators.

From a technical and operational standpoint, the enforcement gap has measurable consequences for compliance infrastructure. A 2024 study by the Centre for European Policy Studies found that national digital regulators across the EU employ fewer than 2,000 staff collectively to oversee all obligations under the DSA, DMA, AI Act, and related frameworks. By comparison, the UK's Ofcom alone employs over 1,000 people for its digital and broadcasting remit. The disparity means that smaller member states often lack the technical expertise to audit algorithmic recommendation systems or assess AI model risks, creating enforcement asymmetries that the proposed agency would address. Axel Voss, a German MEP who led the AI Act negotiations in the European Parliament, has with compliance deadlines that outpace institutional readiness.