Online travel companies do not meet the threshold to be called gatekeepers under the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) - at least for now.
Digital gatekeepers are large companies that are an access point for consumers and are able to use their market position and power in a way that impacts other markets. On Tuesday the European Commission published its first list of companies that meet the criteria.
On the list are Google-parent Alpha, Facebook-parent Meta, Apple, Amazon, Tiktok-parent Bytedance, Microsoft and Samsung. Companies had until midnight on July 3 to notify the commission as to whether they believed they met the threshold of a gatekeeper.
Companies on the list now have a set of "dos" and "don'ts" that they must comply with in their daily operations.
Preempting the publication of the list, Booking.com issued a statement:
“We are engaged in constructive discussions with the European Commission on the applicability of the DMA and look forward to continuing this dialogue. As a result of the impact of COVID-19 on our business, we do not meet the DMA’s quantitative thresholds for the time period associated with the July 2023 submission deadline. We are aligned on this with the European Commission. However, we expect that these thresholds will likely be met at the end of this year, in which case we would expect to notify the European Commission of that fact within the required deadlines.”
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To meet the threshold that would deem a company to be a gatekeeper there are three main cumulative criteria:
- Companies need to be big enough to impact the internal market, which means an annual turnover of €7.5 billion or more in the past three financial years. They must also be providing a core platform service in at least three member states.
- Control of a consumer-facing gateway for business users, which means more than 45 million monthly active users established or located in the European Union and more than 10,000 yearly active business users established in the EU in the past financial year.
- If a company meets the above two criteria, it is said to have “an entrenched and durable position.”
Both Airbnb and Booking.com have been singled out in the past as potential digital gatekeepers, but Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said in 2020 that it would be wrong to treat the company as such because the European accommodation market is open and competitive.
Airbnb has also said it doesn’t believe it, or the sectors it operates in, should raise concerns from the commission under the DMA.