TikTok is a ‘gatekeeper’, EU court dismisses Bytedance appeal

Brussels –TikTok is and remains a ‘gatekeeper’ — a “Very Large” platform of at least 45 million monthly users — which must, therefore, comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA), the digital markets regulation. The EU General Court is convinced of this, rejecting the appeal filed by Bytedance Ltd, the company that controls the well-known social media. The pronouncement confirms the judgment made in February that already recognized the arguments of the EU executive.

The Luxembourg judges found that in making its decision, the European Commission “could rightly consider Bytedance to be a gatekeeper” because ” it was common ground that Bytedance met the quantitative thresholds laid down in the DMA regarding, inter alia, its global market value, the number of TikTok users within the European Union and the number of years during which that threshold relating to user numbers had been met so that it could be presumed
that it was a gatekeeper.”

The Court also rejected the arguments that Bytedance, through TikTok, did not hold an established and enduring position in the digital market. Even though the social media outlet in question was a new entrant in 2018, TikTok “had rapidly consolidated, if not strengthened its position over the following years,”  despite the launch of competing services such as Reels and Shorts “to the point of reaching, in a short time, half the size, in terms of number of users within the European Union, of Facebook and of Instagram.”

The EU Executive conducted its assessments correctly, while Bytedance failed to prove Brussels wrong. TikTok is and remains a gatekeeper. Therefore, it must continue to abide by community rules.