EU General Court Confirms That Microsoft Edge is Not a Gatekeeper

The General Court of the European Union upheld the European Commission decision to not designate Microsoft Edge as a gatekeeper under the terms of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The designation was challenged by Norwegian web browser maker Opera, which correctly argued that Edge does, in fact, meet “all the quantitative thresholds of the DMA.”

“The General Court finds that the Commission did not err in considering that, although Microsoft had met the quantitative thresholds laid down in the DMA, it had put forward sufficiently substantiated arguments to demonstrate that Edge did not constitute an important gateway,” the General Court explains. “The Commission was entitled, in particular, to rely on the low scale of usage of that browser and to compare it with that of other browsers, as those elements are relevant for assessing the actual importance of Edge as a gateway for business users to reach their end users.”

Put more simply, while Microsoft Edge does meet the usage requirements to be deemed a gatekeeper under the DMA–meaning it has “at least 45 million monthly active end users established or located in the Union and at least 10000 yearly active business users established in the Union”–the European Commission found that it falls short in other areas: Its usage is low compared to the market leaders, its integration in Windows hasn’t triggered significant or sustained usage increases, Microsoft doesn’t control the web browser engine it uses in Edge, and Microsoft’s ability to leverage Edge to drive usage of other products and services is limited.

Opera challenged this determination in July 2024, arguing that the Commission didn’t properly assess how Edge’s “durable and privileged position” in Windows harmed the competition. “Edge, like Internet Explorer before it, is the gatekeeper through which users on Windows must pass to download another browser,” Opera noted. “This is precisely the type of gatekeeper role which the DMA was intended to address.”

The General Court ruling is lengthy and complex, but it found that the European Commission thoroughly examined all the issues related to Microsoft Edge and its bundling in Windows and found that nothing it did increased the usage of Edge or any other Microsoft products and services. Which is a shame, as Microsoft forces customers to use Edge in certain cases, even when they have configured another default browser. That is illegal in the EU, just as it is in the U.S. and elsewhere, because Windows is a monopoly–and in the EU, a gatekeeper–and Microsoft is leveraging its dominance with that product to try to gain share for another product, Edge. That this strategy has failed so far is obvious, but so, too, are Microsoft’s transgressions, and the former doesn’t negate the latter. Illegal behavior is still illegal, and Opera was correct to challenge the Commission on this point.

Of course, because Windows is a gatekeeper in the EU, Microsoft was forced to make changes in that locale that it has not made elsewhere in the world, like allowing customers to uninstall Microsoft Edge. But what Opera wanted was for Windows to display a browser choice screen as is the case with Android and the iPhone.

“A browser choice screen on Windows is entirely inconsistent with the purpose and promise of the DMA,” Opera explained at the time of its legal challenge. “You should be free to choose your browser on all platforms, and the choice you make should be respected.”