Welcome back to a special series of MLEX podcast designed to make sense of 2023 and what the new year is likely to bring.

My name is James Panicki, Mlexlex's Asia-Pacific Senior Editor,

and it's great to have your company. Now, our Brussels-based data privacy and security team

has spared our subscribers no detail in its coverage of the European Union's Digital Markets Act

and Digital Services Act, both of which will be enforced from agreed dates in 2023.

It will all come down to what companies will be defined as gatekeepers and what they'll be obliged to do in order to comply.

We received this audio letter from Brussels at the very end of 2022.

Hello, this is Matthew Newman.

I'm Chief Correspondent at Emlex for Tech Regulation.

I'm based in Brussels, where the big news this year has been that

EU legislators approved major legislation aimed at reining in the power of large

U.S. tech companies.

The Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, are intended

to promote fair competition, improve privacy protection, as well as banning both the use

of some forms of targeted advertising and misleading practices. Enforcement on both will start

in 2003. The European Commission, the EU's regulator in Brussels, will make its first decisions on which big tech companies will be designated as gatekeepers.

The Commission will also start enforcing the Digital Services Act.

The largest online platforms, like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, will have to comply

with the bill by September 1st.

That means that they'll be obliged to take more transparent and accountable measures for

the risk they pose to society, or face large fines.

Platforms are required to submit their user platforms numbers by February 17th.

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