Opera Loses Court Battle to Label Microsoft Edge a Gatekeeper
Opera loses EU court fight to have Microsoft Edge labelled a gatekeeper
The General Court backed the Commission’s refusal to designate Edge under the Digital Markets Act, closing a challenge from the browser maker whose 2007 complaint once cost Microsoft €561m.
Background
Microsoft Edge will stay outside the European Union’s toughest tech rulebook. The bloc’s General Court on Wednesday rejected Opera’s challenge to the European Commission’s decision not to designate the browser as a gatekeeper service under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Ruling
The Luxembourg-based court ruled that the Commission "did not err by accepting Microsoft’s sufficiently substantiated arguments to demonstrate that Edge did not constitute an important gateway" between businesses and consumers, according to Reuters. The judgment in Case T-357/24, Opera Norway v Commission, leaves the exemption in place.
Opera’s Argument
Opera challenged a Commission decision from February 2024, which came after a market investigation into Microsoft. Edge had met the DMA’s quantitative threshold for user numbers, but Brussels accepted Microsoft’s argument that the browser was not an important gateway for reaching European users and closed the investigation.
Key Points
- Microsoft is a gatekeeper in the EU, just not for Edge. Windows and LinkedIn are designated core platform services under the DMA.
- Opera focused on a specific part of how Windows works, arguing that "Edge, like Internet Explorer before it, is the gatekeeper through which users on Windows must pass to download" a rival browser.
- The broader goal was to bring desktop operating systems more fully under the DMA.
Court’s Decision
“The General Court upholds the Commission’s decision not to designate Microsoft as a gatekeeper in relation to Edge.”
Implications
- Designation is what brings a service under the DMA’s obligations.
- Designated services cannot self-preference and must allow features such as uninstallation and third-party defaults.
- Serious breaches can result in fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
Historical Context
For Opera, the decision has some history behind it. Its 2007 complaint over browser bundling on Windows eventually led to the EU’s browser ballot screen and, in 2013, a €561m fine against Microsoft for quietly dropping it. Nineteen years later, the same company has failed to get a much newer piece of EU legislation applied to the same product.