Several major technology companies, including Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., have told the European Union that they meet the requirements of the bloc’s landmark digital antitrust rules, which could have a significant impact on their operations.
The group also includes Meta Platforms Inc., Google (Alphabet Inc.), and Microsoft Corp. Samsung Electronics Co. and TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. are also involved, EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton said in a tweet on Tuesday.
Seven platforms have notified the EU that they meet the thresholds to be designated as so-called gatekeepers, which include annual EU revenue of at least €7.5 billion ($8.2 billion) or a market capitalization of €75 billion or more.
Once designated as a gatekeeper platform, the Commission must confirm the specific service each company provides and whether that service should fall under the rules.
To qualify, core platform services must have more than 45 million monthly active end users and more than 10,000 yearly active business users within the bloc.
Under obligations taking effect from March 2024, platforms will face a range of restrictions. Among them, digital services will be prohibited from pre-installing certain applications and from favoring their own services.
Firms will also face limits on how they combine personal data across services. They must allow third-party payment systems on their platforms and enable users to download apps from alternative app stores on their devices.
Source: Bloomberg