Singapore: The TikTok gatekeeper designation under the Digital Markets Act should stand, Advocate General Andrea Biondi told the Court of Justice of the European Union on 15 October 2026. His opinion in Case C-627/24 P recommends that the Court dismiss the appeal that ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, brought against the General Court’s July 2024 judgment. The opinion does not bind the judges, who have begun deliberations without setting a date for a ruling.

The Commission designated ByteDance as a gatekeeper for TikTok, classified as an online social networking service, on 5 September 2023. The General Court dismissed ByteDance’s action on 17 July 2024, and the Court of Justice heard the appeal on 12 May 2026. An appeal does not suspend the TikTok gatekeeper designation, so the obligations that come with it remain in force while the case continues.

ByteDance argued first that the General Court set too high a bar for rebutting the presumptions that apply once a company meets the quantitative thresholds. Biondi disagreed, saying words such as demonstrate and prove are neutral on the standard of proof and show no error of law. He added that arguments must reach a high degree of plausibility, with no easily identifiable weaknesses, and that the company carries the burden of making that case with its notification.

The gateway findings behind the TikTok gatekeeper designation drew most of the attention. ByteDance said TikTok lacks a wider ecosystem like those of Meta or Alphabet and lacks comparable network effects. Biondi said those points do not displace the presumption, and he noted that the Digital Markets Act requires only an important gateway for business users, not the only one. He also found that the comparisons ByteDance offered with services such as Pinterest, LinkedIn and Reddit came too late, so the General Court rightly refused to consider them.

On the right to be heard, the General Court had found a breach and then excused it. Biondi found no breach at all, because Article 34 of the Act does not require provisional findings for designations built on presumptions. He proposed that the Court keep the outcome but substitute the Commission’s reasoning for that of the General Court.

The case matters beyond TikTok. On 3 June 2026 the General Court partly annulled Meta’s designation, cancelling the Marketplace finding while upholding Messenger, and on 8 July it dismissed Apple’s challenges over the App Store and iOS. If the Court of Justice follows Biondi, the TikTok gatekeeper designation will settle how strictly judges read the rebuttal route.

Companies that plan to contest a designation should take note. Biondi’s reading puts the work at the notification stage, where the evidence must be complete and persuasive, and it limits the room for later additions. A final ruling on the TikTok gatekeeper designation will guide how future challengers frame their cases.