DMA gatekeeper thresholds what counts and when to notify

Article 3 creates three cumulative gatekeeper requirements and then sets quantitative presumptions for them. For significant internal-market impact, the undertaking is presumed to qualify if it has 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, and provides the same core platform service in at least three Member States.

For the gateway requirement, the relevant core platform service must have had, in the last financial year, at least 45 million monthly active end users established or located in the Union and at least 10,000 yearly active business users established in the Union. For the entrenched-and-durable-position presumption, those user thresholds must have been met in each of the last three financial years.

If an undertaking providing core platform services meets all Article 3(2) thresholds, Article 3(3) requires notification to the Commission without delay and within two months after the thresholds are met. The notification must include the relevant threshold information for each core platform service that meets the user threshold.

After receiving complete information, the Commission must designate the undertaking as a gatekeeper without undue delay and at the latest within 45 working days if the thresholds are met. A previously designated gatekeeper must also notify when another core platform service later meets the relevant user and durability thresholds.

Form GD is the notification form for Article 3(3) gatekeeper designation. It asks for information about the notifying undertaking, its corporate structure, the entities operating each core platform service, contact details, and whether the undertaking has already been designated for any core platform services.

For threshold evidence, Form GD requires an exhaustive list of core platform services and plausible alternative delineations, explanations of the boundaries between distinct services, Union turnover for each of the last three financial years, average market capitalisation or equivalent fair market value for the last financial year, Member States where each service is provided, monthly active end users in the Union, yearly active business users in the Union, methodology explanations, and external reports or internal documents relied on for the user figures.

The DMA Annex uses unique users for each core platform service. Active end users are counted once for the relevant service over a month, and active business users are counted once over a year, even if they engage many times during that period. The same person or entity can still be an active user for different core platform services.

Monthly active end users are based on the average number of monthly active end users throughout the largest part of the financial year. Signed-in or logged-in data is treated as the lowest duplication-risk source where it exists; where services are also used outside signed-in environments, the undertaking must also submit aggregate anonymized data based on an alternate metric if those identifiers are objectively necessary for providing the service. Business users are counted at business-account level where that concept applies.

Yes, but the rebuttal is narrow and evidence-heavy. Article 3(5) allows the undertaking to present sufficiently substantiated arguments showing that, exceptionally, although it meets all Article 3(2) thresholds, the circumstances of the relevant core platform service mean it does not satisfy the Article 3(1) requirements.

The implementing regulation requires those arguments to be filed with the notification in an annex. There must be a separate annex for each distinct core platform service, and the undertaking must identify which Article 3(1) requirement the argument addresses and explain why the corresponding threshold presumption is not satisfied for that service.