Following an investigation launched in May, the European Commission announced on Wednesday 16 October that social network X did not meet the criteria to be designated as a ‘gatekeeper’ under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
X had notified the EU of its potential gatekeeper status on 4 March (see EUROPE 13363/12), while presenting rebuttal arguments as to why its online social networking service should not, in the company’s view, be considered an important gateway between businesses and consumers. And this, even though X is supposed to meet the quantitative thresholds set out in the DMA.
The Commission concluded that X could effectively not be considered a gatekeeper in relation to its social network service, as the investigation revealed that the platform did not “qualify as an important gateway between businesses and consumers”.
Since the implementation of the DMA last March, seven major companies have been designated as ‘gatekeepers’: Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (owner of TikTok), Meta (parent company of Facebook), Microsoft and Booking.
Although X has escaped the DMA, it is still being investigated under the Digital Services Act (DSA), regarding content moderation rules and for disseminating illegal content and manipulating information (see EUROPE 13452/4). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)