The Gate-Keepers

The six-month grace period for the six companies designated as “gatekeepers” ended on March 7th, meaning they now have to comply with the rules set out in the DMA and outline the measures they’ve taken in compliance reports to the European Commission.

“We can already see changes happening on the market: competitors can set up alternative app stores, European users have more control over their data and are now empowered to make choices they did not have before due to default settings,” said EC commissioner Thierry Breton.

The DMA seeks to regulate “gatekeeper” platforms with significant market power by imposing obligations like data sharing, interoperability and certain transparency requirements to ensure a level playing field for smaller competitors and foster innovation.

Companies become subject to the DMA if they operate so-called core platform services, e.g. search engines, app stores or messenger services and meet the following criteria: 45+ million monthly active users and 10,000 annual business users in the EU, annual revenue of at least €7.5 billion in the European Economic Area and what the Commission calls an “entrenched”, i.e. stable market position.

In September 2023, the European Commission designated six gatekeepers – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft – that are providing 22 core platform services which meet the criteria to be regulated under the DMA.

Google is facing the most scrutiny from the EU’s antitrust watchdog, with eight of its services being designated as important gateways.