Being listed as a gatekeeper requires you to meet a series of requirements to ensure the space is competition-friendly. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has appealed the inclusion of TikTok in the list. But now, this appeal has been dismissed.
Examples of requirements that ‘gatekeeper’ services need to meet under the DMA are, for example, messaging services to support interoperability with other messaging services. Or, OS developers to let users choose which apps to pre-install, and not to favor their own services and apps over those of third parties.
To be considered a ‘gatekeeper’, the service needs to have a specific number of users, market capitalization, and to be influential among people.
TikTok was one of the first services listed as a ‘gatekeeper’, and ByteDance appealed. However, the General Court of the EU has now ruled that the company meets the conditions for a gatekeeper.
TikTok was arguing that appointing gatekeepers was to protect emerging services from dominant companies but TikTok didn’t have a comparable position to others in the gatekeepers list. The list also includes giants such as Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
The rules from the DMA indicate that services with more than 45 million monthly users and a capitalization of more than 75 billion euros in the EU are to be considered gatekeepers. TikTok meets these conditions, and it also has an influence on people.
ByteDance can still try to defend itself despite its appeal being dismissed. To do so, the company needs to take the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This will be the last chance for the company to evade the gatekeeper list.
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