By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters)

Elon Musk's X will not be designated as a gatekeeper under the landmark EU tech rules known as the Digital Markets Act, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter on Thursday.

The European Commission, which initiated an investigation into the online social media platform X in May, is expected to announce its decision next week.

The EU competition enforcer declined to comment on the situation.

X, previously known as Twitter, had informed the Commission that while it met the user criteria to be classified as a gatekeeper, it did not qualify under the other criterion regarding its role as a significant gateway between businesses and consumers. This assertion led to the Commission's investigation in May for further evaluation.

Other notable companies such as Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), TikTok owner ByteDance, and Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG).com have been designated as gatekeepers.

The Digital Markets Act mandates that gatekeepers must enable messaging apps to interact with competitors, allow users to select apps for pre-installation on their devices, and prohibits them from favoring their own services over competitors—penalties for non-compliance can reach up to 10% of annual global turnover.