Seven major tech companies have contacted the European Commission as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act.

In order to qualify as a gatekeeper under the European DMA, companies must meet a number of conditions. In the meantime, seven major players in the digital market have signaled their compliance. That announcement came through a tweet by EU Commissioner Thierry Breton.

legal text

The Digital Markets Act has been in force in the EU since the beginning of May. It is a European law that must ensure that tech companies do business fairly and transparently within the Union. The first proposal for this was made in December 2020.

gatekeeper

Within the framework of the DMA, the gatekeepers of the digital sector are defined. These are big players in the online world with annual sales of at least EUR 7.5 billion (or ten times the market value).

In addition, Gatekeepers have to process 45 million users every month and 100,000 business users every year within the EU. Qualified platforms are services such as search engines, social media or cloud services.

Gatekeepers must comply with a set of do’s and don’ts. Most of these rules are about a transparent market where third parties can use the services provided by the gatekeepers. Furthermore, under EU antitrust rules, they are not allowed to favor their own products and services.

The glory seven

Some big names have now indicated that they qualify for the gatekeeper role just before the deadline:

• Alphabet (Google)
• Amazon.com
• Apple
• ByteDance (TikTok)
• Meta
• Microsoft
• Samsung

The European Commission now has 45 working days to decide whether the seven can actually act as gatekeepers. After that, they have until March 6 next year to fully comply with the Digital Markets Act.

Break the law

If gatekeepers do not follow the rules, there is a risk of high fines. A violation can result in the payment of an amount equal to one tenth of the annual turnover. In the case of repeat offenders, this figure can be as high as twenty percent.

To ensure that gatekeepers comply with the rules, the EU not only threatens fines. There will be market research and gatekeeper duties may be adjusted if necessary.

The involvement of these big names appears to be a positive step in the EU’s relations with a number of key digital players. Companies like Microsoft, Metas Facebook and Google sometimes risk conflict with the European institutions.