Active Choice Interventions at Scale: Browser Defaults under the Digital Markets Act

Jesper Akesson, Kush Amlani, Raul Cepeda Suarez, Emily Chissell, Stefan Hunt, Michael Luca and Gemma Petrie

No 35112, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Can active choice mitigate preset-default effects? Using difference-in-differences around the EU Digital Markets Act’s choice-screen mandate, we study Firefox on iOS and Android. From month 15 onward, Firefox usage was 91 percent higher on iOS and 13 percent higher on Android relative to a no-mandate counterfactual. The platform gap is consistent with rollout differences: iOS reached existing users, while Android primarily reached new devices. Market-share data corroborate movement away from defaults: Safari declined on iOS, with gains concentrated in Chrome; Firefox’s smaller gains were meaningful relative to baseline. Chrome declined on Android, where it was default, and Firefox rose modestly.

JEL-codes: D03 K0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-dcm, nep-pay and nep-reg
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