The EU names six tech giants as “gatekeepers” under DMA guidelines
On Wednesday the The European Commission has appointed six “gatekeepers” as part of the Digital Markets Act: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.
The Digital Markets Act (DMA) defines gatekeepers as platforms that have a significant impact on the internet market.
“A total of 22 core platform services provided by gatekeepers have been named,” the announcement reads. “The six gatekeepers now have six months to ensure full compliance with DMA obligations for each of their designated core platform services.”
to be appoint a portera company or service must have, among other things, an annual turnover of more than 7.5 billion euros in the EU, a market capitalization of more than 75 billion euros and 45 million monthly active users in the EU, according to The Verge. But just because a company isn’t currently on the list doesn’t mean it won’t be added in the future. For example, Apple’s iMessage isn’t on the list, but the commission said it is reviewing whether the service meets the requirements for regulation. The Verge reports that this investigation is likely to last around five months and could result in some services being listed and regulated as such.
“More choice for consumers, fewer hurdles for smaller competitors: The DMA opens the gates to the Internet”, Thierry Breton, the commissioner responsible for the internal market, said in a statement. “With today’s naming, we’re finally reining in the economic power of six gatekeepers, giving consumers more choice, and creating new opportunities for smaller innovative technology companies through things like interoperability, sideloading, real-time data portability, and fairness. That was high.” It is time for Europe to set the rules of the game up front to ensure digital markets are fair and open.”
This is just one example of the many ways the EU regulates technology. The EU has passed one of the most valuable laws protecting people’s privacy and data online – the Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR – in 2016. And since then it has used the GDPR to strengthen online privacy and data protection for EU users through regulation.
