Countries all over the world have antitrust regulators that seek to ensure fair competition in any market space. The EU has it. The US has it. However, the US is clearly unhappy with the EU’s antitrust efforts to rein in big tech companies and wants it to clarify its rules.
Unfair targeting?
According to a report from Reuters, US House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan has demanded that EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera clarify the enforcement of EU rules targeting big tech firms, suggesting that they unfairly impact US companies. Jordan sent a letter to Ribera, co-signed by Scott Fitzgerald, the chairman of the subcommittee on the administrative state, regulatory reform, and antitrust.
“We write to express our concerns that the DMA may target American companies. These severe fines appear to have two goals: to compel businesses to follow European standards worldwide and as a European tax on American companies. These, along with other provisions of the DMA, stifle innovation, disincentivize research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations,” reads the letter.
This is not the first time the US has raised concerns about how the EU targets American big tech companies. Last month, US President Donald Trump criticized EU antitrust regulators for targeting US companies like Apple. Ribera has denied taking aim specifically at US companies. She also told Reuters in an interview that the EU should not be pushed into making changes to laws approved by lawmakers.
Run-ins with regulators
Over the years, we’ve seen many US tech companies face the ire of EU regulators. For example, the EU Commission recently completed its probe into X and is expected to impose a fine worth millions of euros. Google is also facing a whopping €4.33 billion fine, which the company is trying to appeal.
We’re not saying that the US is right that EU regulators are targeting American companies. However, it’s not surprising that many of these US companies are making headlines. A good majority of the tech we use daily comes from US companies. Google Search commands nearly 90% of the search engine market, for example. Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, social media platforms that control a combined 79% of the market. Meta also owns WhatsApp, which commands a staggering 2 billion active monthly users globally. Apple’s iPhones lead the smartphone market with a 27% market share.
Since coming to power, Trump has applied a number of pressure strategies to get other countries to comply with certain requirements. The strategies have mainly involved tariffs on key categories of products. It remains to be seen whether the US president will use this “weapon” to negotiate with the EU as well.