Tech Giants Must Abide by EU’s New Digital Market Regulations

Seven companies, primarily consisting of major American tech companies, have informed the European Commission that they fulfill the requirements to be categorized as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (the owner of TikTok), Meta, Microsoft, and Samsung have stated that they satisfy the criteria established by the EU when the new legislation was enacted. Additionally, Booking.com anticipates achieving gatekeeper status by the conclusion of this year and plans to inform the authorities accordingly.

Gatekeepers are companies with an annual turnover in Europe of at least 7.5 billion euros ($8.16 billion) in the last three financial years or companies with a fair market value of at least 75 billion euros ($81.6 billion) in the last financial year. in at least three EU member states. They must also have served more than 45 million monthly active end users and more than 10,000 annually active business users in the EU in the last three years. These criteria are designed to include the biggest players in the industry, because as the name of the law suggests, it is intended to cover the large online platforms that act as “gatekeepers” in the digital market.

According to the DMA, gatekeepers must not favor their own services over their competitors and lock users into their ecosystem. They must allow third parties to cooperate with their own services. They must also allow business users to promote their products/services and “contract with their customers outside of the gatekeeper platform.” In the case of Google and Apple, this means that they cannot prevent developers from using payment systems other than their own. Companies cannot prohibit users from removing pre-installed apps or downloading apps from external sources on the site. It means huge changes, especially for Apple, whose ecosystem has been designed as a “walled garden” for the longest time. In December last year, Bloomberg reported that Apple was preparing to allow third-party app stores and sideloading with the release of iOS 17.

All gatekeepers must comply with all aspects of the DMA in 2024. For now, European authorities will review applications and appoint gatekeepers for specific platform services by September 6.