European Commission Designates Tech Giants as 'Gatekeepers' Under Digital Markets Act

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In a significant move that is set to reshape the digital landscape in Europe, the European Commission has designated six major technology companies as 'gatekeepers' under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Find out in this article, how Anove can be a partner in your road to compliance success.

Understanding the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

The Digital Markets Act, which came into force in November 2022 and was applied from May 2023, aims to create fair and open digital markets by preventing large online platforms from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end-users. The Act primarily targets companies that provide core platform services such as app stores, online search engines, social networking services, and more.

The Six Gatekeepers

The six tech giants designated as gatekeepers are Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok), Meta (formerly Facebook), and Microsoft. These companies play a pivotal role in the digital landscape, providing essential services to millions of users worldwide.

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Key Highlights of the DMA Designation

The DMA designation comes with a set of significant implications:

1. Compliance Deadline: The six gatekeepers now have six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA obligations for each of their designated core platform services. This includes meeting various requirements to ensure fairness, transparency, and competition in the digital marketplace.
2. Parallel Investigations: In addition to designating gatekeepers, the European Commission has launched four market investigations. These investigations aim to assess whether certain services provided by Microsoft and Apple should be designated as gateways. The investigations will be completed within a maximum of 5 months.

Enforcement Measures

The European Commission will closely monitor the implementation of and compliance with DMA obligations. In cases where gatekeepers fail to meet these obligations, the Commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the company's total worldwide turnover, which may increase to 20% in case of repeated infringements. For regular infringements, additional remedies such as obliging a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it or banning the gatekeeper from acquisitions of additional services related to the systemic non-compliance.

Looking Ahead

This designation of gatekeepers represents a significant step towards ensuring fair and competitive digital markets in the European Union. It also displays the Commission's commitment to safeguarding digital assets and protecting the interests of both businesses and end-users in the digital economy.

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Anove, Your Key to Compliance

As a Tech company owner, you are in the heart of the digital landscape and constantly being impacted by regulations like the DMA, but also NIS2 and GDPR. These acts help safeguarding the marketplace and can make you extremely busy only by complying with them. Anove can help you stay focused on your business and at the same time protect your digital assets and assure compliance. We do this by assisting you in setting up your goals to adhere to this regulation. By putting potential risks on the map and setting preventive measures (controls) in place, we make sure you can perform on the digital market and keep displaying fair and unbiased services.

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