Schjødt Nordic Competition Outlook

On 22 May 2026, the European Commission published its third annual report on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU regulation that imposes obligations on large digital platforms designated as "gatekeepers" in key digital markets. At the end of the reporting period, seven gatekeepers were subject to the DMA: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.

The report highlights two non-compliance decisions resulting in fines. Meta was fined EUR 200 million for requiring users to either consent to personalised advertising or pay a monthly fee to use its platforms without ads. The Commission found that this model did not give users a genuine choice over how their personal data was used. Apple was fined EUR 500 million for restricting app developers' ability to direct users to offers and services outside the App Store, limiting competition from alternative distribution channels.

Beyond the fines, the Commission adopted binding interoperability requirements for Apple's iOS, requiring Apple to open up its ecosystem to connected devices such as smartwatches and wearables from third-party manufacturers. The Commission also launched three market investigations into the cloud sector, including investigations into whether Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure should be designated as gatekeepers, and a broader investigation into whether the DMA's existing rules are sufficient to address fairness concerns in cloud computing.

Takeaway: The 2025 report reflects the steady progression of DMA enforcement. Having established the regulatory framework, the Commission is now applying it with force, issuing substantial fines, setting binding technical requirements, and broadening its investigations into new sectors of the digital economy.

Read more here.

On 14 May 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into Microsoft's business software ecosystem. Under the SMS regime, introduced in the UK in January 2025 and comparable to the DMA in the EU, the CMA can impose binding obligations on large technology companies holding an entrenched position in key digital markets without the need to prove a competition infringement. The investigation covers a broad range of products, including productivity software such as Windows, Word, Excel, Teams and Copilot, operating systems, database management systems, and security software.

The CMA will examine whether Microsoft uses its position to limit customer choice through product bundling, restrictions on interoperability, or default settings that make switching difficult, including whether AI competitors can effectively integrate with Microsoft's software. The investigation must be completed within nine months.

Takeaway: The investigation shows how the CMA is using the SMS regime to address potential competition concerns in digital markets before infringements occur. A designation could potentially result in requirements addressing bundling, interoperability and licensing.

Read more here.

On 18 May 2026, the Swedish Patent and Market Court of Appeal (PMÖD) upheld a decision by the Swedish Competition Authority (SCA) to extend the deadline for its in-depth review of the proposed acquisition by Hypergene AB of sole control over Stratsys AB. The decision is notable as it marks the first time the SCA has extended a review deadline without the consent of the parties.

Hypergene notified the acquisition on 5 January 2026. Following its initial review, the SCA found that it could not exclude the possibility that the transaction would harm effective competition, and on 10 February 2026 opened an in-depth investigation. During that investigation, the SCA identified information suggesting that parts of the notification had been incorrect and had given a misleading picture of the horizontal overlaps between the parties' businesses and their market positions. On that basis, the SCA decided to extend the review deadline by one month, citing exceptional grounds, – which is the legal criteria for such prolongation .

The parties challenged the extension decision before the Patent and Market Court (PMD), which dismissed the appeal. The parties then appealed to the PMÖD, which on 6 May 2026 also dismissed the appeal, confirming that exceptional grounds for the extension existed. The PMÖD's decision is final and cannot be further appealed.

Takeaway: The case illustrates that the SCA has the power to extend merger review deadlines without party consent where the authority receives misleading information in merger cases and that it is prepared to use it.

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On 27 May 2026, the Norwegian Competition Authority (NCA) announced that it is launching a sector inquiry to analyse competition between banks in Norway. The inquiry is the first step towards a potential formal market investigation in the banking sector. The NCA has identified several concerns about the functioning of competition in the banking market, including low levels of customer mobility, barriers to entry and expansion, and market features that may facilitate coordination of interest rate levels. The sector inquiry will focus on the terms and conditions for deposits and residential mortgages. A selected group of 14 banks will be required to provide information as part of the inquiry.

If the inquiry identifies conditions suggesting that competition is materially restricted, the NCA may proceed with a formal market investigation. In such an investigation, the NCA has the power to impose remedies to improve competition, without the need to prove an infringement of competition law. The power to conduct market investigations was introduced in Norway last year.

Takeaway: The sector inquiry reflects the NCA's use of sector-wide tools to examine markets where competition concerns have been identified. For banks and other financial institutions operating in Norway, the outcome of the inquiry may have implications for deposit and mortgage markets.

Read more here.

On 21 May 2026, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (DCCA) announced that it had intervened against an AI assistant developed by Visma Dinero, a provider of accounting software, following concerns that the tool facilitated the exchange of competitively sensitive information between competitors.

According to the DCCA, the AI assistant analysed a company's own accounting data and compared it with anonymised average figures from other Dinero customers in the same industry and region. The tool provided comparisons on parameters such as hourly wages, contribution margins, marketing costs and rental costs, and generated recommendations based on those comparisons, for example, suggesting that a company consider adjusting its prices if they deviated from the industry average. The DCCA took the view that this type of benchmarking, even when based on anonymised averages, may constitute an illegal exchange of sensitive information between competitors. The DCCA conducted a dawn raid at Dinero in June 2025, following which Dinero disabled the relevant features. The DCCA has confirmed that this version of the AI assistant will not be released to the market.

Takeaway: The case highlights that, competition law is not limited to direct exchanges of information between competitors. An AI tool that provides companies with benchmarking data based on competitor information may constitute an infringement, even where the information is anonymised or presented only as averages. For companies using such tools, this underlines the need to assess carefully whether the functionality entails, directly or indirectly, an exchange of competitively sensitive information. Equally, companies developing or offering AI-based benchmarking tools should ensure that their design mitigates this risk – for example, by sufficiently aggregating underlying data (such as across different sectors or broader data sets) so that competitor-specific information cannot be inferred in practice.

Read more here.

QUESTIONS? For questions or further discussion, please do not hesitate to contact Schjødt's EU & Competition team.