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- The European Union named six tech giants as "gatekeepers" that have to comply with new laws.
- The Digital Markets Act aims to give more choice to users and open up the market for competitors.
- A TikTok spokesperson said the company "fundamentally disagrees" with the designation.
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok parent ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft have been designated as "gatekeepers" set to face new rules in the European Union, lawmakers announced Wednesday.
The six tech giants have six months to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims at improving competition in the tech sector.
"With today's designation we are finally reining in the economic power of 6 gatekeepers, giving more choice to consumers and creating new opportunities for smaller innovative tech companies," said Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the EU's internal market.
The DMA's rules include a ban on preventing consumers to linking to businesses outside the platforms — such as the dispute between Apple and "Fortnite" which saw the latter kicked off the App Store after encouraging users to pay on its own system.
The act would also obligate platforms to let business users access data they generate in using the gatekeepers' services.
The designations are split into various categories for the companies' services, such as social networks, search, and video sharing. Only Google, Amazon, and Meta's ad businesses fall under the gatekeeper rules.
"The identities of the gatekeepers aren't a surprise, but it is now about to get interesting in terms of who appeals the designations," said Miranda Cole, antitrust and competition partner at Norton Rose Fulbright.
In a statement shared with Insider, a TikTok spokesperson said: "We support the DMA's goal of creating a competitive playing field in Europe but fundamentally disagree with this decision."
"TikTok has brought choice to a space largely controlled by incumbents and this decision risks undermining the DMA's stated goal by protecting actual gatekeepers from newer competitors like TikTok," they added. "We're extremely disappointed that no market investigation was conducted prior to this decision and are evaluating our next steps."
In response to the announcement, Apple said: "We remain very concerned about the privacy and data security risks the DMA poses for our users. Our focus will be on how we mitigate these impacts and continue to deliver the very best products and services to our European customers."
A Meta spokesperson said the company is evaluating the designations and will set out further information as it works to comply with the DMA.
Amazon said it is "committed to delivering services that meet our customers' requirements within Europe's evolving regulatory landscape," and will work "constructively" with the EU.
In a blog post, Google's legal director said: "We will continue to work closely with the European Commission and other stakeholders. Our aim is to make changes that meet the new requirements while protecting the user experience and providing helpful, innovative and safe products for people in Europe."
Microsoft did not immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.