Elon Musk can claim a rare breakthrough in Brussels: The EU Commission decided on Wednesday that microblogging network Should not be done. The particularly strict competition rules of the Digital Services Act do not apply to the former Twitter. These “gatekeepers” must, among other things, make messengers and messaging services interoperable. Furthermore, they are not allowed to favor their own products or services on their platforms.
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On 13 May the Commission launched a market investigation into the question of treatment of X in the light of the DMA. The platform operator had previously presented its position as a potential “gatekeeper” for review, but also presented counterarguments. Musk’s company stressed that the online service should not be considered a significant gateway between companies and consumers, even though X theoretically meets the quantitative thresholds set out in the DMA and could be considered a gatekeeper.
Under DSA, X faces serious penalties
After a “thorough evaluation of all the arguments” The Brussels competition authority now basically follows the line ofX is “not a significant gateway for business users” to reach end users. The Commission emphasizes that the decision was made following input from “relevant interest groups” and consultation with the Advisory Committee for Digital Markets. However, she wants to continue to monitor developments and respond “if there are any significant changes.” A revised and now confidential version of the decision will be published soon Official DMA Site Be published.
The Brussels executive body initially classified 22 services and platforms from Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta and Microsoft as gatekeepers. It removed three Microsoft services (Edge, Bing and ad technology) and Apple’s iMessage from the list after objections from two gatekeepers. X, along with ByteDance and booking.com, registered additional services that could potentially fall under the DMA. However, the Commission does not generally exempt X. For example, it is already believed that the service violates the requirements of the second major platform law, the Digital Services Act (DSA). In-depth analysis is still ongoing. There is a threat of harsh sanctions. Recently, former Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and Musk had a heated debate over the limits of freedom of expression on X.
(MKI)
