The European Union has named six tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft whose market power it hopes to rein in by applying a new set of proactive, pro-competition rules designating them “core platform services”. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has reportedly been used to define a total of 22 core platform services run by the six gatekeepers.
DMA adopts a proactive approach to competition concerns and once a certain level of market dominance is reached, with companies having 45 million+ active local users or a turnover of tech giants reaches €7.5 billion over the previous three fiscal years with market capitalization of at least €75BN, will fall under the definition of gatekeepers. However, the Commission retains some discretion in designating gatekeepers so that the law can target platforms that appear likely to acquire an “entrenched and durable” position in the “near future”.
The final provisions of the act were approved by EU legislators earlier this year, and it officially began to take effect in May. That agreement came about as a result of protracted discussions between the European Parliament and Council about the Commission’s late 2020 proposal to change how it views digital competition.
To assure compliance and the variety of responses emerging, the digital giants are taking DMA into consideration. In response to the recent development, Meta suggested that DMA compliance will follow subsequent evaluation. TikTok had a conflicted reaction to the Commission’s judgment, praising the competitive environment for new all while protesting that no market research had been done before the Commission made its decision.
