Will the EU’s Digital Markets Act Kill Platform Lock-In?
I work in digital product strategy, and I’ve spent the last 20 years watching how tech giants have mastered one thing above all else: lock-in. Whether it’s Apple making it a pain to leave the App Store, Meta owning your identity across platforms, or Google gently nudging you into their services with every click, these companies have been experts at building comfortable little cages. You stay in them not because you want to, but because it’s too annoying to leave.
But things are changing. Fast.
On March 7, 2025, the EU officially began enforcing the Digital Markets Act (DMA). If you’re not familiar, it’s a massive piece of legislation aimed squarely at companies the EU calls “gatekeepers.” That means the biggest of the big: Apple, Amazon, Meta, Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, and ByteDance (yes, TikTok’s parent company made the list).
What the DMA says is pretty straightforward: If you’re a gatekeeper, you can’t use your power to trap users anymore. People need to be able to uninstall your apps, switch default services, and transfer their data somewhere else. For those of us building digital products, this might be the biggest shift we’ve seen in how platforms have to behave.
No more default advantage
Let’s start with the basics. Apple now has to let users install third-party app stores and switch default browsers and maps. Google can’t pre-load its services in a way that locks out competitors. Meta can’t just push you into its advertising ecosystem without giving you choices.
You can read the official European Commission update here: https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/gatekeepers-publish-updated-reports-dma-compliance-2025-03-07_en.
To anyone outside the tech bubble, that might sound boring. But if you’ve ever built a product and tried to compete with one of these giants, you know how game-changing this is.
We’ve lived in a world where user acquisition often meant fighting upstream against platforms that owned the funnel. Want to launch a new email app? Cool, but good luck convincing users to change the default from Gmail. Have a smart assistant that’s not Alexa or Siri? Sorry, they’ve already decided what button people push.
Now, the playing field is shifting. The wall is coming down.
What does this mean for product strategy?
This is where things get interesting. For years, we’ve optimized product strategy around the reality that the big players could hold users captive. That meant obsessing over onboarding friction, low retention risk, and ways to sneak in through integrations or growth hacks.
Now, we might be entering a new era where we win by actually being better, not just by being the default.
Don’t get me wrong, product quality always mattered. But let’s be honest: a lot of user behavior was shaped by inertia and platform control. If Apple made you jump through five screens to switch your browser, most people just didn’t. If Meta gave you no real option to take your data elsewhere, you stayed.
But under the DMA, that friction is no longer allowed.
If you’re a smaller player building a superior experience, this is your moment. Users will have the legal and technical ability to leave walled gardens. The door is open. You just have to give them a reason to walk through it.
So, what should we actually do?
Here’s how I think product leaders should respond:
- Design for portability: If users can now take their data elsewhere, make it dead simple to import from the platforms they’re leaving. Build great import flows, one-click migration, and visible onboarding paths.
- Win on UX, not entrapment: This is not the time to copy the dark patterns of the past. If Apple has to let go, don’t try to become the next Apple in that sense. Be the brand users choose, not the one they’re stuck with.
- Get serious about trust: The DMA is born from a deep mistrust in how big tech handles user data. If you can show that you’re different — privacy-first, ethical, transparent — users will notice.
- Plan for interoperability: If messaging apps are forced to talk to each other (yes, that’s on the table too), then suddenly your app might have access to a lot more reach. Are you ready to make that work?
- Rethink what loyalty means: When lock-in fades, loyalty has to be earned the old-fashioned way: through relevance, value, and experience.
Now, a reality check
Just as the EU is beginning to enforce the DMA, there’s pushback coming from across the Atlantic. In early 2025, President Donald Trump signed a directive ordering the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate whether regulations like the DMA unfairly target American companies. The administration claims that laws like this discriminate against U.S. tech firms and could justify retaliatory tariffs.
You can read more on that here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-issues-directive-to-prevent-the-unfair-exploitation-of-american-innovation/
So while the DMA is now in effect and real enforcement is happening, there’s a geopolitical layer that could muddy the waters. If U.S. companies challenge the law in court or trade tensions escalate, we might see parts of the DMA delayed or softened.
But let’s not underestimate the EU’s resolve. The Commission has already fined Apple and Meta in early 2025 under the DMA framework. The political games may play out, but the legal groundwork is laid.
What I see is a real window opening for product builders who’ve long been boxed out by ecosystem monopolies. We might not have total freedom, and we still need to fight for users, but for the first time in a long time, the system isn’t entirely rigged.
If you’re building user-first products and thinking long term, now is the time to move. Because even if the future is messy, the direction is clear.
