EU designates 6 tech companies as gatekeepers under DMA
The European Commission has designated six tech companies as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft are the gatekeepers.
The DMA aims to preserve a neutral market for digital services by preventing gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on users, while maintaining the freedom of the services. Any digital service which has over 45 million active monthly users, and/or has a market capitalization of at least 75 billion euro or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion, would meet the threshold set by the Digital Markets Act, to qualify as a gatekeeper.
It covers 10 core services including Online intermediation services, search engines, social networking sites, video-sharing platforms, Number-independent interpersonal communication services (N-IICS), Operating systems, Cloud computing services, Advertising services, Web browsers and Virtual assistants.
The EU identified 22 core platform services which are provided by gatekeepers and designated them accordingly.
List of core platform services designated as gatekeepers
- Social Network: TikTok (ByteDance), Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
- Intermediation: Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Amazon Marketplace, App Store, Meta Marketplace
- N-IICS: WhatsApp, Messenger
- Advertising services: Google, Amazon, Meta
- Video Sharing: YouTube
- Browser: Chrome, Safari
- Search: Google Search
- Operating Systems: Google Android, iOS, Windows PC OS
The list almost consists entirely of U.S. companies with the only exception being TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance is based in China.
EU to review the Microsoft Bing and iMessage situation
A few days ago, we reported that Apple and Microsoft had asked the EU to remove iMessage and Bing from the list of designated gatekeepers. It appears that the Commission has accepted their appeals, for now. So, don't expect RCS in iMessage anytime soon, or for the app to open itself to other services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, etc.
Microsoft's Bing search engine, Edge browser, and Microsoft Advertising have not been designated yet. Both companies have presented a rebuttal to explain why their services should not be designated. This isn't a final decision, and the EU's Commission says it will conclude the investigation regarding these services within 5 months, to determine whether the services qualify as gatekeepers or not.
Apple's iPadOS could be designated as a gatekeeper, even though it does not meet the thresholds. The Commission's investigation is expected to be finished within 12 months.
Email services
The EU's statement says that though Gmail and Outlook met the thresholds under the DMA, both Alphabet and Microsoft provided sufficient arguments that proved the email services do not qualify as gatekeepers. Similarly, Samsung had also provided data for its mobile app, Samsung Internet Browser, to not be designated as a gatekeeper for core platform services.
Role of a gatekeeper
Each service that has been designated as a gatekeeper will have its own set of laws to follow, i.e. rules for an operating system will differ from the laws related to search engines, etc.
Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services. The full list of the DMA's dos and don'ts can be found here.
Gatekeepers have 6 months to comply with the DMA's laws to offer more choice and freedom to end users, business users. That means the companies would have until March 2024 to fall in line with the rules.
Failure to comply with the DMA, such as preferring its own apps and services, could result in a fine of up to 10% of the gatekeeper's total worldwide turnover in the preceding financial year. This could raise up to 20% in case of repeated infringements. In the event of systematic infringements, the EU could impose a ban to prevent the gatekeeper from acquiring other companies, or even oblige the gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it.
Gatekeepers are not happy with the decision
Apple said (via Reuters) it is concerned about the privacy and security risks that the DMA could cause for its products and services. ByteDance has also criticized the EU's decision to designate TikTok as a gatekeeper. A company spokesperson has said that the move protects actual gatekeepers from competitors like TikTok.
Amazon is working with the EU's Commission to implement its plans. Google and Meta (Facebook) are reportedly evaluating the situation. Microsoft has accepted its designation as gatekeeper, and said that it welcomed the investigation regarding the exemption of some of its services.
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
EMRE ÇITAK posts are useless because they are fraught with inaccuracies and are irrelevant.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.
No, they didn’t lmao.
https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1706523877478670542
What does this article about Musk/Tesla have to do with computing, devices, phones?
More irelevant filler.
yeah sure… they are always the victims and it is only against them ????
Believe them 100% and never question anything. This lawsuit sounds like the type you heard when people were eating batteries.