An important deadline has just passed for the world’s largest technology platform companies to notify the European Union (EU) that they are gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Seven companies have officially recognized that they meet the criteria: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Microsoft and Samsung. Companies on the list have a market cap of more than 75 billion euros ($82 billion) and have a social platform or app that has at least 45 million monthly users or 10,000 active business users .
The statement released by EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says he “will now vet their submissions and appoint gatekeepers for specific platform services by September 6”, and after that companies will only have six months to comply with DMA rules.
Reuters reports that TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, disputed its placement on the list and noted that Booking.com had informed regulators that it expected to be on the list next year.
According to Breton, the new rules include several key elements:
They will no longer be able to lock users into their ecosystem.
They will no longer be able to decide which apps you should have pre-installed on your devices; which app store you should use.
They will not be able to “self-prefer”: exploit the gatekeeper advantage by treating their own products and services more favorably.
Their messaging apps will need to interact with others.
Breaking the rules would expose companies to a fine of up to 10% of their total worldwide turnover, 20% for repeat offenders, and repeated breaches could lead the commission to “open a market investigation and, if necessary , imposing behavioral or structural sanctions”. remedies.”
We are also seeing the beginning of new avenues of competition between tech giants. Meta said last week it would allow users to download apps through Facebook ads in Europe.
