An appeal brought by ByteDance to have the regulatory label removed was rejected by the General Court of the European Union.
In the eyes of the European Union, TikTok is in need of stringent rules that are in place permanently. The lawsuit that was brought forward by ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok, was dismissed by the General Court of the European Union. ByteDance maintained that the platform should not be regarded a “gatekeeper” in accordance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). September 2023 was the month that the designation was made, and just two months later, ByteDance submitted a request to repeal it.
“Although in 2018 TikTok was indeed a challenger seeking to contest the position of established operators such as Meta and Alphabet, it had rapidly consolidated its position, and even strengthened that 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,” ByteDance had stated. However, the General Court disagreed with this assessment. “Although in 2018 TikTok was indeed a challenger seeking to contest the position of established operators such as Meta and Alphabet,” they said.
Through the use of Instagram’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts as examples of significant competition, ByteDance had maintained that TikTok did not hold a dominating position in the European Union market. The General Court disagreed with this conclusion, stating that “although in 2018 TikTok was indeed a challenger seeking to contest the position of established operators such as Meta and Alphabet, it had rapidly consolidated its position … to the point of reaching, in a short time, half the size … of Facebook and of Instagram.”
Additionally, the General Court stated that TikTok satisfies the requirements that are necessary to be considered a gatekeeper. These requirements include a global market value of €75 million ($82 million), more than 45 million monthly active end users, and more than 10,000 yearly active business users in the EU over the course of the past three years.
Gatekeepers, such as Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and others, are prohibited from preferring their own platforms or forcing users to remain within their company’s ecosystem as a result of the Digital Media Act (DMA), which went into force in March. A little more than two months remain for ByteDance to file an appeal with the Court of Justice, which is the highest court in the European Union.