European Commission finalizes rules targeting exclusionary abuses of dominance in digital

The finalization of these guidelines confirms that streaming platforms and digital gatekeepers face a dual-track regulatory environment where Digital Markets Act compliance is merely a baseline. By lowering the evidentiary burden for certain 'naked restrictions,' the European Commission has made it easier to challenge bundling and exclusivity tactics common in the streaming industry. This shift forces dominant players to proactively justify their commercial logic with documented consumer welfare data rather than relying on traditional price-based competition defenses. Industry observers should monitor the first Article 102 investigations under this framework to see if the EU Courts uphold the Commission's attempt to sideline the 'as efficient competitor' principle.

The European Commission's final guidelines arrive amid an intensifying enforcement posture toward digital platforms that has already produced landmark decisions under Article 102. In April 2025, the Commission fined Apple €1.8 billion for abusing its dominant position in music streaming distribution, marking the first antitrust penalty against the company in the EU and establishing that self-preferencing within app ecosystems constitutes exclusionary conduct even when no direct price harm to consumers is demonstrated. That precedent directly informs the new guidelines' approach to digital ecosystems, where the Commission has signaled it will assess dominance based on control over access points rather than traditional market-share metrics alone. The interplay between the Digital Markets Act and Article 102 enforcement has become a central concern for platform operators. The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Meta's pay-or-consent advertising model in November 2025, examining whether the company's approach to user consent for personalized advertising constitutes a form of unfair trading condition under both the DMA and Article 102 simultaneously. This dual-track approach mirrors the new guidelines' explicit statement that DMA compliance does not immunize companies from antitrust scrutiny, creating what legal practitioners describe as a layered compliance burden where gatekeepers must satisfy two distinct regulatory frameworks with different evidentiary standards and remedial mechanisms. The Commission's broader enforcement activity in digital markets has accelerated since the DMA became fully applicable in March 2024. In September 2025, the Commission designated Amazon's advertising marketplace as a gatekeeper service under the DMA, expanding the scope of platform regulation beyond core services into adjacent commercial functions. For streaming platforms, the practical implication is that bundling arrangements, exclusive content licensing deals, and algorithmic recommendation systems all now face potential scrutiny under both the DMA's ex-ante obligations and Article 102's ex-post enforcement framework, with the new guidelines lowering the threshold for the Commission to establish anti-competitive effects in markets characterized by global merger control standards and data advantages.