Luxembourg: TikTok lost an appeal Wednesday to escape new digital rules that seek to rein in the power of big tech after an EU court rejected its challenge. A landmark European Union law known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) entered into force in March, and regulators believe it will create a fairer market. The European Commission designated six "gatekeepers" under the DMA facing the curbs: Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft -- and TikTok owner ByteDance, the only non-US company.
The EU said in May that Booking would also have to apply the law and gave the online travel agent six months to prepare for compliance. The decision by the Luxembourg-based General Court is the first judgement on a DMA challenge by big tech, with cases lodged by Apple and Meta still pending. "The Court dismisses ByteDance's action," it said.
TikTok can appeal against the ruling within two months and 10 days of the decision. TikTok had insisted it was the "most capable challenger" to entrenched players in the digital sphere, but the court dismissed that argument. "TikTok had succeeded in increasing its number of users very rapidly and exponentially, reaching, in a short time, half the size of Facebook and of Instagram, and a particularly high engagement rate, with young users in particular, who spent more time on TikTok than on other social networks," the court said in a statement.
The judges acknowledged that in 2018, video sharing app TikTok was indeed a challenger but it had si.
