Brussels will be able to keep a closer watch on the gatekeepers

SEVEN companies recently admitted that they belong on the list of digital giants affected by the EU’s new rules on anti-competitive practices.

The measures will affect companies valued at more than €75 billion on the stock market, with European sales exceeding €7.5 billion, with at least 45 million active end-users and 10,000 business users inside the EU.

The European Commission announced on July 4 that the list included Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta (Facebook), Apple and Microsoft, habitually referred to as the American Big Five.

They are accompanied South Korea’s Samsung and ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the social network TikTok, the Commission said.

The complete list of major groups similarly affected by the new legislation will be ready by September 6.

After years of fruitlessly pursuing transgressions that have only resulted in never-ending and non-productive legal proceedings, the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) will give the Commission the power to impose regulations which even the biggest hitters will have to comply with or pay huge fines.

The DMA, proposed by the Commission in December 2020, was voted through by the European Parliament in July 2022.

The goal is to take action before abusive behaviour has the chance to destroy competition as has happened in the past, the Commission explained.

Only those groups known as gatekeepers will face the DMA’s bans and obligations. These are companies that cannot be ignored because of their standing in online sales, search engines, social networks and operating systems.

Companies meeting gatekeeper thresholds were given a July 3 deadline to notify the Commission once the DMA came into effect at the beginning of May.

The European executive is now examining the notifications from the seven groups, before drawing up a list of all the gatekeepers involved.  All will then be given six months to comply with the DMA, the Commission said.

Consumers will now have more services to choose from, more opportunities to switch providers, and can benefit from better prices and higher quality services, Internal Market commissioner Thierry Breton said.