DMA Sparks Apple, Meta, Bytedance Objections; Concerns on Gatekeeper Labels, Fair Competition, and Hefty Fines Arise

Apple, Meta, and ByteDance, they're all part of a big showdown in the EU over something they call the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This DMA thing, it's all about putting big tech companies in the spotlight and calling them "gatekeepers." These gatekeepers, they're like the bouncers at the club who control who gets in and who doesn't. And if these gatekeepers do stuff that's not right, the EU says they can get fined.

Now, they've got their eyes on 22 different services run by six big tech giants – Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, and TikTok's ByteDance. The idea behind all this is to make sure things are fair for us, the consumers. They don't want these companies to play dirty and make life tough for businesses or customers.

So, just the other day, the EU Court of Justice spilled the beans and told us that Apple, yep, the one with the iPhones, they've joined forces with Meta and ByteDance in saying, "Hold on a second, we're not cool with this DMA stuff." But, you know what? They're not spilling the details of why they're upset.

Rumor has it that Apple is not happy with the gatekeeper labels slapped on the App Store and iMessage. And here's the thing, Apple's been making some noise about supporting RCS on iPhones. This move, it might just make the EU think twice about Apple locking customers into iMessage.

But wait, there's more. Microsoft and Google, they seem to be saying, "Alright, fine, you can call us gatekeepers." They're not making a fuss. On the other hand, Meta and ByteDance, they're raising their hands and saying, "Why us? Why are Messenger and Marketplace getting the gatekeeper label? Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are cool though." Meta's argument is that Marketplace is just folks buying and selling stuff, and Messenger, well, that's just chatting on Facebook. It's not some big middleman.

Then there's ByteDance, the folks behind TikTok. They're saying, "We're not a gatekeeper, we're the new kid on the block, trying to shake things up." They reckon calling TikTok a gatekeeper is just protecting the old guard.

Now, the DMA, it's got some serious bite. Companies that don't follow the rules, they could get fined up to 10% of their global earnings. Repeat offenders, they might face even higher fines, up to 20%. And if you thought that's all, there are these regular fines too, up to 5% of their daily earnings. Oh, and they could even be forced to sell off parts of their business if the regulators dig deep and find more wrongdoings.

So, that's the deal. Big tech companies duking it out with the EU over this DMA thing. It's all about fairness, competition, and making sure that no one's playing dirty in the tech playground.

Photo: DIW

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by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World