European Union: Announced notifications from Alphabet Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung as potential gatekeepers under the DMA

On 4 July 2023, the European Commission announced it had received notification from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung designating themselves as potential gatekeepers under the thresholds established by Article 3 of the Digital Markets Act. The Act defines “gatekeepers” as companies providing “a core platform service” (such as browsers, messengers or social media) that operate in three or more member states and have more than 45 million monthly “end users” and 10'000 “business users”. Furthermore, such companies must have a local annual turnover of over EUR 7.5 billion or at least EUR 75 billion of market capitalisation. The Commission now has 45 working days to determine whether these platforms meet the thresholds and to designate them as gatekeepers.