ByteDance, the operator of TikTok, lost the case before the General Court in which the company contested that it would be considered a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) legal framework in force in the EU.
ByteDance filed its appeal against the commission’s decision by the statutory deadline of November 13, 2023, as a result of which the company should have, or should, comply with a series of stricter operating conditions.
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The company argued that classifying TikTok as a gatekeeper goes against the basic goals of the DMA, as the Chinese company’s service is a challenger that has been on the market for just five years and is still considered a challenger in the social services segment. , however, he may lose this role if he is classified as a gatekeeper.
The Chinese also pointed out that the Commission wrongly classified TikTok as a gatekeeper, as it used the traffic data of the parent company, ByteDance, as a basis for this, as the company conducts a significant part of its business outside the European Union.
In its ruling yesterday, the court finally rejected ByteDance’s submission, stating that the Commission acted in accordance with the applicable legislation in the gatekeeper classification, as TikTok meets all the necessary criteria, i.e. its annual sales within the EU exceed 7.5 billion euros, and the number of its users also exceeds the monthly average of 45 million people.
Gatekeeper status means, among other things, that qualified platforms are
- They can no longer lock customers/subscribers into their own ecosystem,
- They can no longer arbitrarily decide on mandatory, factory-installed and non-removable apps on devices, and they can no longer prescribe the source from which the user must acquire the applications,
- They cannot position their own platforms and products to the detriment of their rivals,
- Also, they must ensure the interoperability of the messaging platforms they manage.
ByteDance can file an appeal against the General Court ruling at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
