Oh, me, me! I spent a few years being responsible for a significant bit of DMA review and CYA and responses to regulators.
I’ve read all of it, multiple times, and been grilled by EU regulators (vicariously, via corporate lawyers).
It still boils down to general guidelines that it’s impossible to know if you’re violating before the fact, and they will not even approve/reject proposals in advance. It’s basically “go read the act yourself, and ship what you think is compliant, and you’ll know whether we interpret the words the same way by whether or not we fine you.”
> It still boils down to general guidelines that it’s impossible to know if you’re violating before the fact, and they will not even approve/reject proposals in advance. It’s basically “go read the act yourself, and ship what you think is compliant, and you’ll know whether we interpret the words the same way by whether or not we fine you.”
Companies want to know exactly where the line is so they can figure out how to comply with the letter of the law while doing as much as possible to get around the spirit of the law. This has been demonstrated over and over again. It isn't the job of the regulator to help companies with this process.
So you’d be cool with speed limit signs that said “hey, don’t go too fast” and no specific limits? And the cops decide who to pull over on vibes, reputation, mood?
I’m more of a rule of law person myself. If there’s a law that must not be broken, and breaking it results in penalties, it seems insane to me to not specify it in advance.
Sure, big tech is largely evil. Arrest ‘em, find them, IDGAF.
But pretending that DMA and related regulations provide enough information to ensure compliance is willfully ignorant. The regulations are designed to allow selective enforcemen.
>speed limit signs that said “hey, don’t go too fast”
Yeah we already have that. We have the words 'SLOW' on the road that ask you to slow down from the current limit for the hazard ahead, but pulling you up on this is officers discretion.
Bad example, as there is a posted speed limit above which you are positively breaking the law. Discretion may lower the limit.
The DMA doesn’t have the objective measures. It’s all discretion, all subjective, all post hoc.
Which, cool, some people like the idea that police target those people and need flexibility to make life harder for undesirables in ways they would never do to high status people. I don’t personally like that, and I don’t think tech regulation should work that way.
I’ve read all of it, multiple times, and been grilled by EU regulators (vicariously, via corporate lawyers).
It still boils down to general guidelines that it’s impossible to know if you’re violating before the fact, and they will not even approve/reject proposals in advance. It’s basically “go read the act yourself, and ship what you think is compliant, and you’ll know whether we interpret the words the same way by whether or not we fine you.”
Good times.