In yet another sign of the ongoing tension between the EU and the US over digital regulations, the Committee on the Judiciary of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to the EU Commissioner for Competition, Teresa Ribera, on 23 February criticising the EU’s use of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
In line with recent statements by the US administration (see EUROPE 13586/7), the letter expresses “concern” about the constraints imposed by this regulation on US digital and tech giants.
According to the two co-signatories - Jim Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Scott Fitzgerald, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust - the DMA rules are intended to “benefit European companies”.
In particular, they object to the fines provided for in the regulation, which, they say, “appear to have two goals: to compel businesses to follow European standards worldwide, and as a European tax on American companies”.
The two representatives also accuse the DMA of putting smaller European companies at a disadvantage, of making fair competition difficult and of being a protectionist measure directly targeting American companies - omitting to point out that, while the majority of gatekeepers designated under the DMA are indeed American companies, it is first and foremost their position of superiority in their sector that motivates their designation.
In the letter, the DMA is accused of ultimately benefiting China, as its rules “stifle innovation, disincentivise research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations”.
Asked in mid-February 2025 about the Trump administration’s criticism of the DMA and the Digital Services Act (DSA), Teresa Ribera said that the European Union had no intention of changing “laws approved by legislators”.
When questioned, the Commission replied that it “has always applied and will continue to apply [the] laws in a fair and non-discriminatory way to all companies operating in the EU, irrespective of their place of registration or majority shareholders, in order to ensure safe, fair and equal conditions of competition”.
To see the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/fps (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)