The European Commission designated six companies as “gatekeepers” for the first time in accordance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on September 6, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft. , including the 22 core platform services they provide, including Apple App Store, Facebook, Chrome, Windows PC OS, TikTok, Youtube, etc. The businesses mentioned above will have six months to ensure that each core platform service they designate fully complies with their obligations under the Digital Markets Act.
At the same time, the Commission launched four market investigations to further evaluate submissions from Microsoft and Apple that, despite meeting the threshold, some of their core platform services did not qualify as “gatekeepers”, including Bing, Edge , Microsoft Advertising, iMessage. The investigations, which aim to determine whether the company has provided sufficient rebuttal evidence that the services in question should not be designated as “gatekeepers”, should be completed within up to five months, according to the DMA.
Separately, the European Commission has launched a market investigation to further assess whether Apple’s iPadOS should be designated a “gatekeeper” despite not meeting the criteria. According to the DMA, this investigation should be completed within a maximum of 12 months.
In addition, it is noted that the European Commission also concluded that although Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser met the “gatekeeper” standards stipulated by the DMA, Alphabet, Microsoft and GoOnline provided sufficient and reasonable reasons to indicate that These services do not qualify as “gatekeepers.” Therefore, the European Commission decided not to designate it as a core platform service.
According to the bill, “gatekeeper” companies refer to large companies that provide core platform services such as social networks and search engines. They have a market value of at least 75 billion euros or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion euros. They also need to have at least 45 million end-users per month in the EU. , with 10,000 business users annually. The Act ensures that these businesses do not abuse their position. The Digital Markets Act imposes obligations on large online platforms. These companies must allow business users to access the data they generate on the platform, allowing them to promote their products.
A list of 22 core platform services:
Social Networks: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
N-IICS (Information Services): WhatsApp, Messenger
Intermediary services: Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Amazon Marketplace, Apple App Store, Meta Marketplace
Video sharing: YouTube
Advertising services: Google, Amazon, Meta
Web browser: Chrome, Safari
Search: Google Search
Operating system: Android, iOS, Windows