The Commission of the European Union (EU) has named six major digital platform companies as “gatekeepers” under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
According to an EU Commission press release, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft have received designations as gatekeepers. The EU defines gatekeepers as large digital platforms providing so-called core platform services, such as online search engines, app stores, and messaging services.
EU-designated gatekeeps are subject to Commission oversight and are required to comply with the obligations and prohibitions detailed in the DMA. Specifically, gatekeepers must:
- Allow third parties to “inter-operate” on the gatekeeper’s digital platform;
- Allow business users to access data generated from the use of the gatekeeper’s platform;
- Provide companies advertising on their platform with the tools and information necessary to independently verify their advertising hosted by the gatekeeper; and
- Allow businesses to promote their offers outside of the gatekeeper’s platform.
At the same time, gatekeepers cannot:
- Provide preferential treatment to products and services offered by the gatekeeper itself;
- Prevent consumers from linking up to businesses outside of their platforms;
- Prevent users from uninstalling any pre-installed software or app if they wish to do so; and
- Track end users outside of the gatekeeper’s platform services without receiving the consent of the end user.
Read the complete text of the Commission’s press release announcing its gatekeeper designations.
Read an overview of the EU’s DMA is available on the Commission’s website.
