BRUSSELS — The European Union’s dream of fending off U.S. attacks on its tech rules was short-lived.
Just days after the bloc’s officials boasted they had kept their landmark rules on content moderation and digital competition out of an EU-U.S. trade deal, President Donald Trump brought them back into play through a post on his social network Truth Social.
“I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies,” he posted. Digital taxes and rules on digital services or markets were “designed to harm” U.S. technology, he said, and threatened to impose tariffs on countries that have them.
Without a hitch, a now-familiar playbook unfolded: The European Commission stood by its “sovereign right to regulate,” European lawmakers urged the EU executive not to give in, and experts quipped that the EU might have to relinquish the very right to regulate it had claimed as a big win in the trade deal.
“We must stand firm on our principles and react if words actually become action,” said Italian Social Democrat lawmaker Brando Benifei, chair of the European Parliament’s EU-U.S. delegation.
The back-and-forth is the umpteenth episode of a saga that started right after Trump took office. The U.S. has tried every possible trick in the book to undermine the EU’s tech rule books, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, claiming they censor Americans and unfairly target American companies.
Meanwhile, Brussels is clinging to its right to regulate the digital space and U.S. tech companies.
Just when Brussels thought it had won some relief, its biggest headache — the enforcement of its landmark tech rules — is back. The Commission’s tech and competition departments, DG Connect and DG Comp, are overseeing several open probes under the DSA and the DMA, while one against Elon Musk’s X is being closely watched.
Last Thursday, the European Commission’s trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said both rule books had been kept out of the trade talks, but that the door had been left open for later talks.
Trump didn’t wait long to restart that discussion.
No to blackmail
Just before Trump’s threats, a Reuters report said the U.S. was considering visa restrictions against EU officials over the DSA.
European Parliament lawmakers expressed alarm.
“Europe will not rewrite its laws under threat,” said Valérie Hayer, chair of the Parliament’s liberal Renew group, vowing to “block any weakening of our rules.” Hayer added: “Threats of tariffs or blackmail will not change EU law.”
“All EU legislation must be implemented,” agreed Manfred Weber, chair of the conservative European People’s Party.
Yet the Parliament’s lead on the DSA, Danish Social Democrat Christel Schaldemose, said she was “more worried now” than before the summer break.
“The not-very-balanced trade deal was accepted to protect the EU from a trade war and to appease Trump to keep on supporting Ukraine,” she said. Why would Trump not use his bargaining position to get the EU to capitulate once again, she asked.
Greens European Parliament lawmaker Kim Van Sparrentak expressed hope that this would be a “lesson for the Commission” as “bullies don’t speak diplomacy.”
The Parliament’s DMA lead, German Andreas Schwab, brushed the threat aside, saying: “We should not let ourselves be driven every week by individual posts on Truth Social.”
What discrimination?
Trump’s threat also took aim at a group of countries that already have some sort of digital services tax in place. Among them are France, Italy and Spain — while Poland and Belgium have announced their intention to do the same.
“The digital services tax is not aimed at entities from any specific country, it is intended to apply to all relevant market participants,” a spokesperson from the Polish Digital Ministry said in written remarks shared with POLITICO when asked about Trump’s remarks.
These countries could face equal pressure to reconsider those taxes. Earlier, Canada rescinded its tech tax as part of trade talks with the U.S.
Trump also threatened to leverage the EU’s heavy reliance on U.S. technology, as countries that have tech rules or taxes in place could face export restrictions on “highly protected technology and chips.”
The EU had just promised last week to buy “at least” €40 billion worth of U.S. artificial intelligence chips.
The bloc aims to ramp up the construction of large-scale computer and data storage facilities that can help with training the most complex AI models. For that it is entirely reliant on U.S. chips, since it has no production capacity of its own.
Experts see it as another argument for Europe to reduce its reliance on the U.S.
“This development makes one thing crystal clear: The risk of technological coercion and weaponisation is here to stay,” said Giorgos Verdi, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank.
“The most important thing then is that the EU starts charting a course toward building its independent stack of technologies.”
The post It’s Groundhog Day: The EU’s tech rules are under attack — again appeared first on Politico.
