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Alibaba's (9988.HK) AliExpress, Amazon's (AMZN.O) Marketplace, Apple's App Store and 16 other tech companies will be subject to new EU online content rules as of August, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said on Tuesday.

The other 16 companies are booking.com (BKNG.O), Facebook (META.O), Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google Maps, Google Play, Google Search, Google Shopping, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Microsoft's Bing and Zalando (ZALG.DE).

Under the landmark rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), the companies, all with more than 45 million monthly active users, are required to do risk management, conduct external and independent auditing, share data with authorities and researchers and adopt a code of conduct.

"We consider these 19 online platforms and search engines have become systematically relevant and have special responsibilities to make the internet safer," Breton told reporters.

He said he was checking to see whether another four to five companies fall under the DSA, with a decision expected in the next few weeks.