This page helps separate DMA core platform service categories, designation evidence, active-user thresholds, and service-boundary records before assigning Article 5, 6, or 7 work.
The scoping record should identify the gatekeeper undertaking, each distinct core platform service, plausible alternative service delineations, EU business-user and end-user metrics, and the Commission designation file or case page that supports the result.
Structured answer sets in this page tree.
Cited legal and guidance references.
Scope the named service before assigning DMA obligations. Article 2 supplies the closed list of categories, Article 3 separates undertaking-level impact from service-level gateway and durability presumptions, and Form GD requires service boundaries, , Member States, and active-user figures. A large provider's product is not automatically a designated service.
Classify each candidate service against the DMA's closed list of categories before applying thresholds or obligations. The Article 2 list covers online intermediation services, online search engines, online social networking services, video-sharing platform services, number-independent interpersonal communications services, operating systems, web browsers, virtual assistants, cloud computing services, and online advertising services supplied by an undertaking that also provides one of the other listed core platform services.
Do not use unsupported examples or adjacent product labels as substitutes for the legal category. A service name such as a marketplace, app store, browser, operating system, search engine, social network, messenger, video-sharing service, cloud service, virtual assistant, or advertising service still needs to be tied to one Article 2 category and to the Commission designation or notification record for that specific service.
A designated gatekeeper is an undertaking providing core platform services that has been designated under Article 3. For scoping by service, the relevant question is narrower: which exact core platform services are listed in the designation decision or Commission case page, and which Article 5, 6, or 7 obligations apply to each listed service.
As verified on the Commission's gatekeeper portal on 24 July 2026, 23 core platform services were designated: Alphabet's Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Google Search, YouTube, Android Mobile, online advertising service, and Google Chrome; Amazon Marketplace and Amazon Advertising; Apple's AppStore, iOS, Safari, and iPadOS; Booking.com's online intermediation service; ByteDance's TikTok; Meta's Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Meta Ads; and Microsoft's LinkedIn and Windows PC OS. Use the current portal, case page, and designation decision as evidence because the list can change.
Article 3 uses cumulative gatekeeper criteria. The undertaking must have significant impact on the internal market, provide a that is an important gateway for business users to reach end users, and enjoy an entrenched and durable position or a foreseeable durable position.
The quantitative presumptions are also service-specific where users are counted. The undertaking-level impact presumption uses annual Union turnover of at least EUR 7.5 billion in each of the last three financial years, or average market capitalisation or equivalent fair market value of at least EUR 75 billion in the last financial year, plus provision of the same in at least three Member States. The service-level gateway presumption uses at least 45 million monthly established or located in the Union and at least 10,000 yearly established in the Union in the last financial year. The durable-position presumption is met when both user thresholds were met in each of the last three financial years.
Keep the user counts by distinct service and plausible alternative delineation. A combined product family count is weak evidence if Form GD or a Commission request requires separate figures for service boundaries that could be broader or narrower than the undertaking's preferred view.
The procedural implementing regulation makes service delineation an evidence exercise. Form GD asks for an exhaustive list of all core platform services, , and a detailed explanation of the boundaries between distinct core platform services. It also asks which services meet Article 3(2)(b) and (c), which meet Article 3(2)(b) but not (c), and the Member States in which each service is provided.
The record should identify the undertaking, the distinct service, the reason for the selected boundary, and any alternative boundary the Commission could reasonably test. These distinctions matter where products are marketed together, embedded in operating systems, split across device types, or supported by shared advertising or identity infrastructure.
Review this checklist before relying on a DMA service scope in compliance reporting, product-change review, business-user handling, interoperability work, or data-use controls. The output should be a service-level evidence record, not a one-line statement that the undertaking is a gatekeeper.
No. Article 5 ties obligations to each listed in the designation decision. The scoping record should therefore name the designated service and evidence source, not assume that every product of the same undertaking is covered.
For Article 3(2)(b), save at least 45 million monthly established or located in the Union and at least 10,000 yearly established in the Union for the relevant service. For Article 3(2)(c), save whether those thresholds were met in each of the last three financial years.
Keep the Article 2 category, the selected service boundary, , Member State coverage, service-level EU end-user and business-user metrics, operating entity and brand details, the designation decision or case link, and any Article 3(5) substantiated arguments for that service.
Sorena can help convert each designated service, Article 2 category, Article 3 threshold record, and Commission case link into a reusable scoping table for DMA compliance work.
Ask questions tied to cited sources about DMA service categories, gatekeeper designation files, Form GD fields, and service-specific obligation scoping.
Review a DMA core platform service inventory, designation evidence, and boundary questions with Sorena.
"For each distinct core platform service"
"Core platform services"
"main rules for the designation of gatekeepers"
"particularly as regards the delineation of core platform services"
"provides a core platform service"