Seven tech giants, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, have said they meet the European Union’s new criteria for “gatekeepers,” which means they will be subject to stricter regulations.
Samsung and TikTok owner ByteDance also unexpectedly said they would meet the criteria, although TikTok disputed whether it should be included on the list. Booking.com said it expected to fall into the gatekeeper category next year.
Under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which came into force in November, companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a 75-billion-euro ($82 billion) market capitalisation are considered gatekeepers providing a core platform service.
Companies labelled as such will be required to make their messaging apps interoperate with rivals and let users to decide which apps to pre-install on their devices.
The European Commission did not provide details of the companies’ core online services subject to DMA rules.
It will confirm the gatekeeper designation by Sept. 6 after checking the data provided by the companies, which will then have six months to comply with the DMA rules.
MacDailyNews Take: It will be interesting to see how Apple handles its Messages app and its iMessage instant messaging service under the DMA especially how much “interoperability” the DMA will ultimately demand and how much Apple will ultimately provide. Expect Apple to fight to preserve iMessage’s end-to-end encryption and Messages features that are unique to Apple products.
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