Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft claim to meet EU gatekeeper status | The powerful 790 KFGO

[ad_1]

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) Alphabets Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft have notified the European Commission that they qualify as gatekeepers under new EU technology rules, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday.

Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which took effect last November, companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a market capitalization of €75 billion are considered gatekeepers providing a core platform service.

ByteDance, owner of Samsung and TikTok, also said it met EU thresholds, Breton said.

Europe is completely retooling its digital space both to better protect EU citizens and to improve innovation for EU startups and companies, Breton said in a statement.

The Commission will confirm the designation of the gatekeeper by 6 September after verifying the data provided by the companies. They will then have six months to comply with DMA rules.

Booking.com said it expects to reach the gatekeeper threshold by the end of the year and will then notify the EU executive.

Companies labeled as gatekeepers will have to make their messaging apps interact with those of the competition and allow users to decide which apps to pre-install on their devices.

They won’t be able to favor their own services over rivals or prevent users from removing pre-installed software or apps, two rules that will hit Google and Apple hard.

Companies can be fined up to 10% of their annual global turnover for DMA violations.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, Editing by Louise Heavens)

[ad_2]