The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament’s committee on internal market and consumer protection (IMCO) lead by S&D MEP Evelyne Gebhardt, will get a ban on targeted ads for minors. This comes as part of the package of compromises on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to be voted this evening during an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary committee.

Evelyne Gebhardt, German S&D MEP, and S&D negotiator on the Digital Markets Act said:

“For us, the S&D Group, the interests of people come first and this is why I am very satisfied with the compromise we reached on one of the most important issues for our group - targeted advertising. According to the text of the compromise, this kind of advertising, based on the surveillance of consumers’ behaviour and preferences online, will be totally banned when it comes to minors. On what concerns the adults, they will give or refuse their consent when accessing a website where targeted ads is a possibility. Thus, we will protect children and teenagers from this practice our group finds abhorrent, while at the same time adults will have the option to choose if they want the pattern of their behaviour to be targeted by algorithms.

“The issue of interoperability is also a key point in this file. The compromise I reached with my colleagues means consumers will not be forced to use a specific messenger, but will be able to cross chat between different applications. I am very optimistic the vote in the committee on internal market and consumer protection this evening will be a success as the compromises we, the Socialists and Democrats, reached with other political groups in the European Parliament have a large majority. These negotiations were extremely difficult as a lot is at stake - the Digital Markets Act will regulate the platforms where different services are offered and sold to consumers.

“We, Socialists and Democrats, also reached a compromise on the ban of self-preferencing practices for all products and services. This means that with our efforts, it will not be possible for Big Tech to apply better conditions to their own services than to those of competitors. This is something that clearly works in the interest of consumers and makes it possible for smaller and new players to step up.”