Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft have informed the European Commission that they qualify as gatekeepers under new EU tech rules, according to EU industry director Thierry Breton.
Companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a market value of 75 billion euros are regarded gatekeepers providing a basic platform service under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect in November.
According to Breton, Samsung and TikTok owner ByteDance have also stated that they meet the EU standards.
“Europe is completely reorganizing its digital space to better protect EU citizens while also increasing innovation for EU startups and businesses,” Breton said in a statement.
After reviewing the evidence given by the firms, the Commission will confirm the gatekeeper designation by September 6. After then, they will have six months to comply with the DMA guidelines.
Booking.com stated that it anticipates meeting the gatekeeper criteria by the end of the year and will subsequently notify the EU government.
Companies labeled as gatekeepers must make their messaging apps interoperable with competitors and allow consumers to choose which apps to pre-install on their devices.
They will not be permitted to favor their own services over competitors’ offerings or to block users from deleting pre-installed software or apps, two rules that will severely impact Google and Apple.
DMA infractions can result in fines of up to 10% of annual global turnover.
