For almost 30 years, Opera has been shaping the internet and defending open standards and fair access to the technology that benefits our users. This has sometimes found us, a European browser company, in front of courts and political bodies responsible for defending fair competition and user choice. Such is the case again today, as we request that the EU General Court annul the European Commission’s decision not to designate Microsoft Edge as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). 

The DMA is a key piece of legislation which seeks to free user choice from the control of powerful digital platforms. It has already seen almost 400 million European smartphone users get a screen allowing them to easily pick their default browser and search engine on Android and iOS devices. We have seen the substantial impact of the DMA on smartphones, with people expressing their choice of browsers and increasingly picking alternative browsers like Opera, which demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach. 

This has been a great step forward for fair competition and user choice in Europe – for smartphone users. Now it is time to secure that same free browser choice for all internet users. The designation of Edge as a gatekeeper is needed in order to level the playing field for browsers on PCs in the same way as has been done with smartphones. 

Why the DMA should extend to Edge

While great progress has been made in the smartphone space, almost 30 years after the launch of Opera’s first browser, third party browsers are still not treated equally on Windows. Because Edge has not been designated as a gatekeeper service under the DMA, the vastly popular Windows operating system is still able to make it difficult for users to choose and continue to use an alternative browser as the system default and it keeps treating its own browser, Edge, in a preferential way. We see the lack of a browser choice screen on Windows as entirely inconsistent with the purpose and promise of the DMA. You should be free to choose your browser on all platforms, and the choice you make should be respected. 

Today, we are appealing the European Commission’s decision* not to designate Microsoft Edge as a gatekeeper despite meeting all of the quantitative thresholds of the DMA. We believe that the decision in particular fails to properly assess Edge’s durable and privileged position on Windows devices which creates an uneven playing field for its competitors. Edge, like Internet Explorer before it, is the gatekeeper through which users on Windows must pass to download another browser. This is precisely the type of gatekeeper role which the DMA was intended to address. 

Why Opera is appealing to the EU General Court

We’re appealing the European Commission’s decision because we believe that you should have the same browser choice on Windows as you have on Android or iOS. 

We live in times where almost every task performed on a desktop computer can be done in the browser – and with the rise of AI, the role of this type of application has never been greater. That’s why it’s so important for the operating system to respect your wishes, and to let you use the browser of your choice – no further questions asked. We have been advocating for user choice since the inception of our company and we won’t stop. We are hoping the General Court of the European Union grants our request, which will benefit all Windows users around the world. 

* Decision of 12 February 2024 in Case DMA.100028 – Microsoft – Web Browsers, closing the investigation notified under document C(2023)6078, pursuant to Article 17(3) of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (C(2024) 806)

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