European Union: Parliament adopts position on “gatekeeper” qualification in DMA

On 15 December 2021, the European Parliament approved its amended text for the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The approved text includes several amendments concerning the “gatekeeper” designation. The Parliament proposes a new quantitative threshold for designating a company as a “gatekeeper”, increasing the threshold for the annual turnover to EUR 8 billion and for the market capitalisation to EUR 80 billion. Furthermore, gatekeepers have to provide “a core platform service” in three or more Member States and have more than 45 million monthly “end users” and 10’000 “business users”. In addition, the approved text introduces higher penalties in case of non-compliance, with fines ranging from 4% to 20% of the company’s global turnover in the previous financial year. The Parliament will start the negotiations with the EU Council on the DMA in the first quarter of 2022 under the French presidency of the Council.