TikTok has joined Meta in appealing against its “gatekeeper” status under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes stricter regulations on tech companies and facilitates user movement between competing services. The appeal comes after Meta challenged the designations for its Messenger and Marketplace platforms, but not for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
In September, the EU identified 22 “gatekeeper” services operated by six tech giants, including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, and ByteDance’s TikTok. While Microsoft, Google, and Amazon did not contest their designations, TikTok and Meta have raised objections.
TikTok’s appeal argues that its designation as a gatekeeper could hinder the DMA’s goal of fostering competition, emphasizing that TikTok, operational in Europe for just over five years, challenges more entrenched platform businesses rather than acting as a gatekeeper.
The video-sharing app contends that it does not meet the DMA’s revenue threshold for the European Economic Area and questions its gatekeeper status based on ByteDance’s global market capitalization, primarily driven by business lines not operating in Europe.
The DMA categorizes companies with over 45 million monthly active users and a market capitalization of €75 billion as gatekeepers. TikTok, with 134 million monthly users, asserts its status as a challenger, not an incumbent, in digital advertising. The company highlights that no market investigation was conducted regarding its designation by the European Commission.
