The EU has just passed a deadline for global tech companies to identify themselves as the gatekeepers of several ecosystems under the new Digital Market Act.

The EU commissioner has passed a list that includes seven companies as the gatekeepers already and confirming their stance by September 6th. This will force the concerned companies to open their markets to disrupt their monopoly status in the field effectively.

Breaking Up the Monopolies

Doing business in the EU is always challenging, with its stringent laws always keeping businesses in check for violations. Lately, the Union has passed the Digital Market Act, which requires big tech companies to identify themselves as the possible gatekeepers of specific fields to break them apart lawfully.

In this pursuit, seven companies – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, and Samsung have identified themselves as the gatekeepers of specific platforms, effectively drawing themselves under scrutiny.

The list was shared by EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said they’ll “now check their submissions and designate the gatekeepers for specific platform services by 6 September.” Afterwards, the companies will have six months to comply with the new DMA’s rules. Some of these include;

  • They will no longer be able to lock in users in their ecosystem.
  • They 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.
  • They will not be able to “self-preference”: exploiting the advantage of being the gatekeeper by treating their products and services more favourably.
  • Their messaging apps will have to interoperate with others

Reuters report that ByteDance has disputed its placement on the list, while Booking.com said it’ll be on it next year. If any company in the list breaks the DMA act, it’ll be fined up to 10% of its global turnover, 20% for repeat offenders. If things go out of hand, the commission will “open a market investigation and, if necessary, impose behavioural or structural remedies.”

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