TikTok owner can't avoid bloc's law crackdown on digital giants: EU court

TikTok owner ByteDance can't avoid the bloc's crackdown on digital giants, a European Union court said Wednesday in a decision that found the video sharing platform falls under a new law that also covers Apple, Google and Microsoft.

The EU's General Court rejected ByteDance's legal challenge against being classed as an online "gatekeeper that has to comply with extra obligations under the 27-nation bloc's Digital Markets Act.

The rulebook, also known as the DMA, took effect this year and seeks to counter the dominance of Big Tech companies and make online competition fairer by giving consumers more choice.

TikTok had argued that it wasn't a gatekeeper but was playing the role of a new competitor in social media taking on entrenched players like Facebook and Instagram owner Meta.

The judges, however, decided that since 2018 TikTok had succeeded in increasing its number of users very rapidly and exponentially and that it had rapidly consolidated its position, and even strengthened th