In a final appeal heard at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on May 12, Bytedance’s short-video platform TikTok sought to overturn its classification as a "gatekeeper" under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA). The action represents the first DMA 'gatekeeper' dispute for the Court and will be closely watched as it could either strengthen or weaken Europe’s regulatory framework targeting large digital platforms.
TikTok was formally designated a gatekeeper in September 2023 after being identified alongside other platforms that exceed the 45 million monthly active user threshold. The list of firms designated under the DMA includes large technology groups such as Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Booking.com.
A lower EU tribunal dismissed TikTok’s earlier challenge in 2024, concluding that the company satisfied the three statutory criteria for gatekeeper status. Those criteria focus on a company’s significant market impact, its role as a key gateway through which businesses reach users, and the existence of an entrenched market position. The DMA attaches a stringent set of obligations to gatekeepers and foresees penalties for non-compliance of up to 10% of annual turnover.
At the Court, TikTok’s legal team argued the tribunal made legal errors in finding the platform failed none of the three gatekeeper tests. Bill Batchelor, representing ByteDance, told the panel of 15 judges that a substantial portion of the company’s market value derives from its Asian operations, which he said are largely disconnected from Europe. He said those businesses face different competitive dynamics and operate in separate regulatory, linguistic and cultural settings.
Batchelor also presented evidence on user behaviour, saying that between 70% and 80% of TikTok users engage in "multihoming" - using TikTok alongside other social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snap and X. He argued this multipronged access means advertisers and businesses can reach the same end users across multiple services, weakening the case for TikTok being a singular gate to those audiences.
The European Commission pushed back on that line of argument. Commission counsel Mislav Mataija told the Court that the existence of multihoming does not preclude a lock-in effect, noting that particular user segments could nonetheless be dependent on TikTok’s services. Mataija asserted that lock-in can persist even where users maintain accounts on several platforms.
The Court has indicated it will issue a ruling in the months ahead. The outcome will set a precedent for how strictly the DMA’s gatekeeper criteria are interpreted and applied. Meta Platforms, separately, is also contesting its own gatekeeper designation in relation to Messenger and Marketplace.
The case is listed as C-627/24 P Bytedance v Commission. Observers will be looking to the Court’s decision to understand how obligations and potential sanctions under the DMA will be allocated among major digital platforms moving forward.