Companies may become subject to the DMA if they operate a so-called core platform service, such as, among others, search engines, app stores, messenger services, and also meet the following criteria: have 45 million monthly active end users and 10 000 yearly business users, have a significant impact on the market and have a stable market position. The Commission now has 45 working days to decide whether to designate the companies as gatekeepers. The Commission will also assess any argument put forward by the submitting companies to rebut the presumption that they should be designated as gatekeepers. If designated, gatekeepers will have six months to comply with the requirements in the DMA.
The DMA aims to prevent gatekeepers from imposing unfair conditions on businesses and end users and to ensure the competitiveness of important digital services. It defines gatekeepers as those large online platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers. To address these issues, the DMA defines a series of specific obligations that gatekeepers need to respect. Six companies have already been designated as gatekeepers for 22 core platform services and the DMA rules will apply to them as of 7 March 2024.
More information is available in the dedicated Q&A.
Details
- Publication date
- 1 March 2024
- Authors
- Directorate-General for Competition | Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology