\n<\/p>\n
An important deadline just passed for the biggest tech platform companies in the world to notify the European Union (EU) that they are gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act<\/a> (DMA). Seven companies have officially acknowledged they meet the criteria<\/a>: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp), Microsoft, and Samsung. Companies on the list have a market capitalization of over \u20ac75 billion ($82 billion) and own a social platform or app that has at least 45 million monthly users or 10,000 active business users.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The statement published by EU commissioner Thierry Breton says it \u201cwill now check their submissions and designate the gatekeepers for specific platform services by 6 September,\u201d and after that, the companies will have just six months to comply with the DMA\u2019s rules. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reuters<\/em><\/a> <\/em>reports that TikTok parent company Bytedance disputed its placement on the list and noted that Booking.com informed regulators it expects to be on the list next year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to Breton, the new rules include several key items:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n They will no longer be able to lock in users in their ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u00a0They will no longer be able to decide which apps you need to have pre-installed on your devices; which app store you have to use.<\/p>\n \u00a0They will not be able to \u201cself-preference\u201d: exploiting the advantage of being the gatekeeper by treating their own products and services more favorably.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their messaging apps will have to interoperate with others.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Breaking the rules would put companies at risk of a fine of up to 10 percent of its total worldwide turnover, 20 percent for repeat offenders, and repeat failures could lead the commission to \u201copen a market investigation and, if necessary, impose behavioural or structural remedies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We\u2019re also seeing the beginning of new avenues for competition between the tech giants. Meta said last week it would allow users<\/a> to download apps via Facebook ads in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n