The EU has named six companies as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These companies will have six months to comply with the full list of dos and don’ts under the DMA for each designated service. For the App Store, that means Apple should allow sideloading of apps, third-party app stores, third-party payment services, and more.
The European Commission has today designated six gatekeepers – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft – under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for the first time. A total of 22 core platform services have been designated to be provided by gatekeepers. The six gatekeepers now have six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA obligations for each of their designated core platform services.
Under the DMA, the European Commission can designate digital platforms as ‘gatekeepers’ if they represent an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services. Today’s designation decisions follow a 45-day review process carried out by the Commission following the notification by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung of their potential status as gatekeepers. In particular, the Commission has established gatekeeper status with regard to the following specific core platform services:
In addition, the Commission has opened four market investigations to further assess the comments from Microsoft and Apple, claiming that, despite meeting the thresholds, some of their core platform services do not qualify as gateways:
● Microsoft: Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising
● Apple: iMessage
On the basis of the DMA, these investigations are aimed at determining whether a sufficiently substantiated response from the companies shows that the services in question may not be designated. The research must be completed within a maximum of 5 months.
In addition, the Commission has launched a market investigation to further assess whether Apple’s iPadOS should be designated as a gatekeeper, despite not meeting the thresholds. Under the DMA, this investigation must be completed within a maximum of 12 months.
In addition, the Commission has concluded that, although Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser meet the thresholds under the DMA to qualify as gatekeepers, Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung have provided sufficient reasoned arguments showing that these services do not qualify as gateways for the respective core platform services. Therefore, the Commission has decided not to designate Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser as core platform services. It follows that Samsung has not been designated as a gatekeeper with respect to any core platform service.
Gatekeepers now have six months to comply with the full list of dos and don’ts under the DMA. If a gatekeeper does not comply, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s total global turnover, and for repeated violations, this can be as high as 20%. Systematic infringements could empower the Commission to take additional measures, such as requiring a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts thereof, or prohibiting the gatekeeper from purchasing additional services related to the systemic failure compliance.
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