Threatened with taxes, the EU rejects accusations of targeting US tech

The European Commission on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump‘s criticism that EU rules on digital services unfairly target U.S. technology companies. The EU also rejects the idea that these regulations are tantamount to censorship.

Trump wrote on Monday that he would impose additional tariffs on all countries with digital taxes, laws or regulations, claiming they were “all designed to harm or discriminate against American technology”.

During August, the U.S. and EU agreed a joint statement on a deal to limit most U.S. tariffs on EU goods exports to 15%, with no mention of digital services.

The Trump administration has consistently criticized the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to limit the power of tech giants, and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which obliges major online platforms to fight illegal and harmful content.

The European Commission, which proposed both laws, declared on August 26 that it was the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate economic activities. The Commission strongly refuted Trump’s claim that the EU was targeting US companies, insisting that the DMA and DSA applied to all platforms and companies operating in the Union.

A European spokesperson added that the last three DSA enforcement decisions concerned AliExpress, Temu and TikTok, all of which are owned by Chinese interests. The Commission has also opened DSA investigations into X (formerly Twitter) and Meta.

Accusations that European data laws censor social networks, as asserted by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are “totally false and unfounded,” said the EU spokesperson.

The DSA is not asking platforms to remove content, but to apply their own terms and conditions, which define what should not appear on their platforms.

“And while we’re on the subject, more than 99% of content moderation decisions taken online in the EU are proactively taken by platforms, based on their own terms and conditions,” said the spokesperson.

As FashionNetwork.com noted, this latest U.S.-EU tussle comes at a time when the European Union wants to step up its fight against anti-competitive practices by some major digital platforms, but also intends to lay down a legal framework for the exploitation of artificial intelligence.

(with Reuters)