- Ruling: The General Court dismissed Opera Norway’s challenge, leaving Microsoft Edge outside service-specific DMA gatekeeper obligations.
- Legal Test: Edge met quantitative thresholds, but Microsoft rebutted the presumption that the browser was an important business-to-consumer gateway.
- Court’s Reasons: Judges accepted low usage, reliance on the Blink engine that limited Microsoft’s control, and the insufficient gateway effect of Windows integration and pre-installation.
- Scope: Microsoft remains a gatekeeper for LinkedIn and Windows PC OS; the judgment does not approve every Edge distribution practice.
On Sept. 2, 2026, the European Union’s General Court dismissed Opera Norway’s challenge in Case T-357/24, leaving intact the European Commission’s decision not to designate Microsoft as a gatekeeper in relation to Microsoft Edge. The judgment keeps Microsoft’s browser outside the Digital Markets Act obligations tied to designated web-browser services, even though Edge met the law’s quantitative thresholds.
The distinction is service-specific. The DMA can regulate a company as a gatekeeper in relation to some core platform services while leaving another service undesignated. In Edge’s case, the decisive issue was not Microsoft’s overall size or the browser’s presence inside Windows. It was whether Edge operates as an important gateway through which business users reach end users.
Why the Thresholds Did Not Decide the Case
The Commission adopted its Edge non-designation on Feb. 12, 2024, after an in-depth market investigation. Microsoft had notified for Edge because the browser met the DMA’s quantitative thresholds, but it also submitted arguments that the service did not have the gateway importance presumed from those figures. The Commission accepted that rebuttal, and the court found no error in the assessment.
The court’s summary of the judgment identifies three connected grounds. First, Edge’s low usage compared with other browsers was relevant because the statutory question concerns whether business users depend on the service to reach end users. Thresholds triggered closer scrutiny, but the browser’s actual role in that relationship still mattered.
Second, Edge relies on Blink, a browser engine used to interpret and display web content. The court said that dependence reduced Microsoft’s autonomous control over some key aspects of the service. It used that dependence as service-level evidence against inferring gateway power from Microsoft’s overall scale.
Third, the Commission had assessed Edge’s integration into Microsoft’s ecosystem, its pre-installation with Windows and other ways Microsoft promotes the browser. The court accepted the finding that those advantages did not contribute enough to make Edge an important gateway under the DMA. Pre-installation therefore remained part of the analysis rather than an automatic route to designation.
What the Judgment Changes
The immediate effect is to preserve the regulatory status created by the 2024 decision. Edge remains outside the obligations that would follow from designation as a web-browser core platform service. The non-designation remains in force without a remand to the Commission.
That result is not a Microsoft-wide exemption. As of Sept. 2, the Commission’s gatekeeper list identifies Microsoft as a gatekeeper for LinkedIn and Windows PC OS. Google Chrome and Apple Safari are separately listed as designated web browsers. The contrast shows why company status and service status cannot be used interchangeably.
For business users trying to reach Edge users, the legal position does not change: the browser is not a designated gateway under the act. The ruling does not decide whether every way Microsoft distributes, promotes or integrates Edge is lawful under every competition rule. The court reviewed the Commission’s service-designation decision and the gateway evidence supporting it.
Opera Won Standing, Not the Case
The General Court accepted that Opera Norway, the company behind the Opera browser, was directly and individually concerned by the Commission’s decision. That gave Opera standing to seek annulment. It did not establish that the Commission had made a substantive error.
On the merits, the court rejected Opera’s challenge and dismissed the action in its entirety. Opera therefore obtained no order requiring the Commission to reconsider or designate Edge. Opera’s next judicial step, if it takes one, would be an appeal to the Court of Justice within two months and ten days after notification, limited to points of law.
In 2024, Opera and other browser developers backed efforts to revisit the non-designation, arguing that Windows integration made it harder for rivals to compete. Those remain attributed industry allegations, not findings in this judgment.
The Commission has said it can continue monitoring non-designated services if substantial market changes arise. The Sept. 2 judgment nonetheless leaves the present service map intact: Edge remains outside DMA web-browser designation, while Microsoft remains regulated under the act for LinkedIn and Windows PC OS.
