By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s new tech rule aims to keep digital markets open and is not targeted at U.S. tech giants, EU antitrust and tech chiefs told U.S. congressmen, reminding them that U.S. enforcers have in recent years also cracked down on these companies.
The comments by EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera and EU tech chief Henna Virkkunnen came after U.S. House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald, chairman of the subcommittee on the administrative state, regulatory reform and antitrust demanded clarifications on the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
“The DMA does not target U.S. companies,” Ribera and Virkkunnen wrote in a joint letter dated March 6 to Jordan and Fitzgerald seen by Reuters.
“It applies to all companies which fulfil the clearly defined criteria for being designated as a gatekeeper in the European Union irrespective of where they are headquartered,” they said.
Ribera and Virkkunnen also dismissed criticism that the DMA hinders innovation.
“By preventing gatekeepers from engaging in unfair practices vis-à-vis smaller companies, the DMA keeps the door open to the next wave of innovation in vital digital markets,” they said.
They pointed to similar concerns of unfair practices that led to U.S. antitrust investigations and lawsuits filed under the first Trump administration and other recent actions against Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta Platforms.
Ribera and Virkkunnen also rejected claims that EU antitrust fines are a form of European tax on American companies. U.S. President Donald Trump in a memorandum last month threatened to impose tariffs against countries which impose fines on U.S. companies.
“The objective of DMA enforcement, as in any other piece of EU law, is to ensure compliance – not to issue fines. Possible sanctions, also common to U.S. laws and regulations, are not an end in themselves but a prerequisite for credible engagement,” they said.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, Editing by Louise Heavens)
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