BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) -

TikTok owner ByteDance on Wednesday lost its court challenge

against its designation as a gatekeeper under landmark EU tech

rules, in a boost for EU antitrust regulators seeking to rein in

the power of Big Tech.

Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), gatekeepers are

required to make their messaging apps interoperate with rivals,

let users decide which apps to pre-install on their devices and

are not allowed to favour their own services over rivals.

ByteDance had argued that its designation risks

undermining the DMA goal by protecting dominant companies from

newer competitors such as TikTok, which does not have an

entrenched position.

The Luxembourg-based General Court sided with the

European Commission and dismissed its challenge, saying that

ByteDance had not sufficiently substantiated its arguments.

"The Commission was fully entitled to consider that

Bytedance was a gatekeeper," judges said.

They said the company met the DMA's quantitative

thresholds, regarding its global market value, the number of

TikTok users within the European Union and the number of years

during which that threshold relating to user numbers had been

met.

The Court also pointed to TikTok's sharp jump in

popularity to put it on par with rivals Meta Platforms ( META )

and Alphabet.

"It had rapidly consolidated its position, and even

strengthened that position over the following years, despite the

launch of competing services such as Reels and Shorts, to the

point of reaching, in a short time, half the size, in terms of

number of users within the European Union, of Facebook and of

Instagram," judges said.

The case is T-1077/23 Bytedance v Commission.