TikTok loses court fight to suspend EU gatekeeper status
Technology
TikTok loses court fight to suspend EU gatekeeper status
AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - ByteDance's TikTok has lost its bid to suspend its designation as a gatekeeper, which makes it subject to onerous obligations under EU rules after Europe's second top court dismissed its request because it failed to show the urgency for such a move.
TikTok took its grievance over the designation to the Luxembourg-based General Court in December and also asked for an interim measure after it was tagged as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in September last year.
It said complying with the EU rules would lead to the disclosure of highly strategic information concerning its user profiling practices, which is not public.
The Court rejected its request to suspend its designation.
"ByteDance has failed to demonstrate the urgency required for an interim order to avoid serious and irreparable damage," judges said.
"ByteDance has not shown that there is a real risk of disclosure of confidential information or that such a risk would give rise to serious and irreparable harm," they said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Meta Platforms (META.O) Apple (AAPL.O) Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) have also been designated gatekeepers.
The six companies have to comply with a list of do's, such as allowing third parties to inter-operate with their services, as well as don'ts, including not preventing users from linking up to businesses outside their platforms.
