EU Digital Chief Rejects Concern That Regulation Is Anti-US

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s head of digital and competition policy, doesn’t think the EU’s new policies are too targeted towards Americans, Financial Times (FT) writes.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) was the cause for concern. The White House recently said the EU wasn’t interested in “engaging in good faith” with the U.S. about how tech platforms can be managed.

The policy puts new rules in place for big enough platforms that could be considered “gatekeepers.” Vestager has said the proposed legislation is intended to focus on how Big Tech’s dominance over lesser companies has affected the market.

She said the EU wants to figure out “who should be in the scope” and said the DMA wasn’t supposed to be targeted at any one business or nationality.

Her comments were apparently an attempt to soothe the relations between the U.S. and EU after years of tumultuous leadership under President Donald Trump, FT wrote, with both sides trying to change the course of things.

That said, German MEP Andreas Schwab, who will be instrumental in passing the DMA, did say that the biggest problems were the U.S.-based tech companies. He added China-based Alibaba as a potential “number six” after the first five U.S. companies.

The Biden administration has been under pressure to be harder on the EU’s plans to regulate big tech, with co-chairs of the U.S. digital trade caucus saying that the new legislation could possibly hurt U.S. companies more than those from other countries.

PYMNTS recently reported on the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), which told the EU to cut back on its targeting of American tech firms.

“We are particularly concerned about recent comments by the European Parliament rapporteur for the Digital Markets Act, Andreas Schwab, who suggested that the DMA should unquestionably target only the five biggest U.S. firms,” the report says, according to a June 9 email seen by FT.