EU excludes Elon Musk-owned SNS 'X' from Big Tech Anti-Abuse Law scope

EU Commission Reverses Preliminary Investigation Results

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, owns the social media (SNS) platform X (formerly Twitter), which has been excluded from the European Union (EU)'s 'Big Tech Fairness Act' regulatory scope.

On the 16th (local time), the EU Commission announced that after conducting an in-depth investigation, it decided not to designate X as a 'gatekeeper' company subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The EU Commission had initially determined X as a potential gatekeeper through a preliminary investigation in May but reversed this decision after the in-depth investigation.

X submitted a position stating that even if it meets the strategic criteria (number of users, revenue, etc.) to be designated as a gatekeeper under the DMA, it is difficult to consider that it performs the role of a 'gateway' connecting multiple service companies and users, and the Commission accepted this.

However, the Commission left room for monitoring the market situation continuously and will keep an eye on the possibility of significant changes occurring.

Elon Musk [Photo by Yonhap News]

The DMA is a law that designates platform operators of a certain scale as gatekeepers and imposes special regulations to prevent the abuse of market dominance by large platform operators. Seven companies, including Apple, have been designated as gatekeepers.

Gatekeepers may be fined up to 10% of their global revenue for violations of the DMA. If violations are deemed repetitive, fines can increase up to 20%.