Alphabet, Amazon, Apple listed among 'gatekeepers' by European Commission
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The European Commission on Wednesday announced its first list of "gatekeepers," a group of six tech companies that are subject to the continent's Digital Markets Act.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Chinese tech giant ByteDance (BDNCE) are on the list, which is comprised of 22 services owned and operated by the six tech conglomerates.
The services include social networks such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn; "intermediation" services like Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Amazon Marketplace, Apple's App Store and Meta Marketplace; ad delivery systems from Google, Amazon and Meta; Chrome and Safari web browsers; Android, iOS and Windows PC operating systems; Google Search; YouTube; and WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
The EC added that it has opened four investigations to determine whether Apple's (AAPL) iMessage and Microsoft's (MSFT) Bing, Edge and advertising should not be qualified as gatekeepers, despite meeting the thresholds, which include 45M or more active local users, more than â¬7.5B in annual revenue or a market cap that surpasses â¬75B.
Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) had argued that the four respective services should not qualify as gatekeepers.
An additional investigation has been opened into Apple's (AAPL) iPadOS to determine if it should be listed as a gatekeeper, despite the fact it does not meet the thresholds set forth by the DMA.
The EC also said that although Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung's (OTCPK:SSNLF) Internet Browser met the requirements to be listed as gatekeepers, Google, Microsoft and Samsung provided "sufficiently justified arguments" to show they do not qualify as gatekeepers. 
"The six gatekeepers will now have six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA obligations for each of their designated core platform services," the European Commission said in a statement.
If the companies do not comply with the rules laid down by the DMA, they can be fined up to 10% of global annual turnover or 20% for repeated violations, the EC explained.
Additional steps can be taken by the EC, including requiring a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it or banning the respective gatekeeper from acquiring additional services related to the non-compliance. 

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