On Tuesday, 30 June, Dora Palfi from ACT | The App Association member company imagiLabs spoke on behalf of app makers in a panel discussion on competition in the digital economy. The panel was part of Forum Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) conference, a weeklong event of virtual networking, panel discussions, stakeholder engagement, and keynote speeches. The background for the conversation was the European Commission’s (EC) ongoing consultation on the DSA package. This regulation may include ex-ante regulation for “large platforms with significant network effects acting as gatekeepers”. If you’re not familiar with the term, “ex-ante” means “before the event”. In the legislative context, it means a regulation that aims to identify and remedy problems before a law or rule is violated by shaping stakeholder behaviour through regulatory intervention.
The panel included industry and think tank representatives, and officials of the EU institutions. During the discussion, the speakers touched on what this regulation could look like. Although all panellists agreed on the importance of coherent competition regulation, they had different opinions on what such regulation should look like. The speakers discussed the definition and meaning of a “gatekeeper”, how large platforms impact the competitiveness of markets, and to what extent ex-ante rules could help to achieve the EC’s goal of a fair and open market for consumers and businesses. The panel also contemplated the need to preserve innovation and letting innovation drive the market rather than regulation.
Dora Palfi reflected on the power of tech and apps to contribute to our everyday lives and the economy in general. Just over the last couple of months, there have been thousands of apps helping people all around the world to live through the COVID-19 pandemic. She emphasised that technology is very powerful in shaping the future, which is why imagiLabs works to involve more women in the tech sector. She explained how their app on the App Store teaches Python tutorials and how seeing results on their gadget, the imagiCharm, makes programming more tangible and relatable.
Having a physical product and an app on the App Store, Dora made a direct comparison between how challenging it was to figure out how to distribute a gadget and how easy it was to launch their app on the app store. This has allowed Dora and her team to focus on what they’re good at– user experience, developing and improving their product, all while having global reach instantly with safety and security measures in place.
As a small company that has launched an app, the existence of app stores and platforms has been important to imagiLabs as the company relies on the app stores to distribute its product. While there are difficulties and challenges on the app stores, Dora said the review guidelines have been a huge help and provide a good structure to build on.
She also raised the important point that some gatekeeping is needed to keep bad actors out of the market, especially for a company like imagiLabs. The privacy and security of young users are crucial for imagiLabs, and the platforms help to provide parents some assurance that information about children will remain safe.
Finally, Dora expressed that she wished more voices like hers would be heard and included because she and small companies like hers are the end-users of the app stores and have to deal with the impact of regulations. Policymakers should listen so they can preserve and support what works and regulate based on data and insights they receive from stakeholders. You can listen to Dora’s remarks in the clip below.
During the Q&A with moderator Lewis Crofts of MLex, Dora again emphasised that as a developer, being able to focus on the product and relying on the scale and consumer trust provided by the app stores is a huge benefit – and losing this trust and scale due to ex-ante regulation would be devastating. You can watch the full panel, including the Q&A, here.
Following the panel, Forum Europe hosted an interactive discussion where conference participants shared their thoughts. During a conversation with moderator Lewis Crofts, App Association chairperson and founder Mike Sax talked about the importance of having app stores’ guidelines apply to all app makers equally, regardless of their size. Speaking about his own experience as an independent app developer, Mike shared that maintaining trust in the app stores is essential for small companies to be able to compete with global brands on a level playing field.
We are proud of Dora Palfi for making such valuable contributions to the discussions and are grateful to Forum Europe for hosting such an insightful event. You can find more of our coverage of DSA week on our Twitter account @euappmakers.