The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Wednesday rejected an appeal filed by ByteDance, the owner of the social media platform TikTok, against the European Commission’s decision to classify it as a gatekeeper.
According to a ruling published Wednesday, the General Court rejected an appeal filed eight months ago by ByteDance after the community’s chief executive announced it was classifying the TikTok-owning company as a gatekeeper.
According to digital legislation, a gatekeeper is a large platform that meets certain requirements, namely a company with a strong economic position, significant influence on the domestic market and operating in a number of EU countries.
With this appointment, the European Commission also realized that ByteDance has a strong intermediary position, that is, it provides a link between a large number of users and many companies, which is also the case with TikTok.
In September 2023, Ursula von der Leyen’s boss classified ByteDance (TikTok), Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) and Microsoft as access controllers for complying, in the Commission’s opinion, with these criteria.
The appointment comes with increased liability for those platforms, something ByteDance rejected and filed an appeal last November to overturn the decision.
The General Court recalled the rules of the Digital Markets Regulation, which were adopted to “promote the proper functioning of the internal market by establishing rules designed to ensure the fairness of markets in the digital sector in general and in particular for professional users and end users of the main platform services provided by gatekeepers.”
The arguments presented by ByteDance to challenge the status given by the European Commission were “not sufficiently substantiated” to cast doubt on the fact that ByteDance, through its social network, has little influence on the internal European market.
“TikTok is an important gateway that enables user companies to reach their end users, and in which ByteDance has an entrenched and strong position,” the court concluded.
The company that owns the social network TikTok will therefore have to comply with Brussels’ requirements as an access controller.