Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft Tell European Commission They Meet New EU Tech Gatekeeper Status

Alphabet's Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft have notified the European Commission that they qualify as gatekeepers under new EU tech rules, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday.

Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which came into force last November, companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a EUR 75 billion (roughly Rs. 670 crore) market capitalisation are considered gatekeepers providing a core platform service.

Samsung and TikTok owner ByteDance also said they meet the EU thresholds, Breton said.

"Europe is completely reorganising its digital space to both better protect EU citizens and enhance innovation for EU startups and companies," Breton said in a statement.

The Commission will confirm the gatekeeper designation by September 6 after checking the data provided by the companies. They will then have six months to comply with the DMA rules.

Booking.com said it expects to meet the gatekeeper threshold by the end of the year and will then notify the EU executive.

Companies labelled as gatekeepers will be required to make their messaging apps interoperate with rivals and let users to decide which apps to pre-install on their devices.

They will not be allowed to favour their own services over rivals' or prevent users from removing pre-installed software or apps, two rules that will hit Google and Apple hard.

Companies can be fined up to 10 percent of annual global turnover for DMA violations.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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