The European Publishers Council (EPC) and Digital Content Next (DCN), two publisher organizations representing thousands of premium publisher brands, share the same concerns as expressed recently by other stakeholders. By not referencing "specific processing purposes", the wording of Article 5(1)a would substantially deviate from the fundamental principle that data must be "collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes" (GDPR, article 5). But more importantly, Article 5(1)a of the DMA would end up creating a loophole for gatekeepers to combine data across all their many services and businesses, whenever the user agrees to a single, all-embracing opt-in, thus undermining the very objectives of the DMA. Meanwhile, all other economic actors not covered by the DMA remain subject to the provisions of the GDPR without any uncertainty.
In addition, publishers, who already suffer from the dominant presence of gatekeepers in the digital advertising market, are extremely worried that the latest version of the DMA would also allow “processing for the purpose of providing advertising services”. This language would facilitate the assertion by gatekeepers that a single opt-in de facto authorizes all the envisioned data processing purposes of that gatekeeper, so long as connected with its advertising businesses.
We urge you to address these concerns by returning to the Article 5.1.a text of 2 nd March. We should be certain that there is no backdoor for gatekeepers to avoid compliance with their key obligations.
Angela Mills Wade Jason Kint
Executive Director CEO
European Publishers Council Digital Content Next