US Lawmaker Demands Answers On EU Antitrust Law

US House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has demanded clarifications on the EU’s Digital Markets Act from antitrust commissioner Teresa Ribera, arguing the law appears to target American companies.

Jordan sent the letter to Ribera on Sunday, two days after a memorandum from US president Donald Trump saying his administration would scrutinise the DMA and the Digital Services Act, which regulates online content and service providers, saying they “dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union”.

“We write to express our concerns that the DMA may target American companies,” Jordan wrote, saying the rules subject firms to burdensome regulations and give European companies an advantage.

Competition law

He said fines under the law, which can reach up to 10 percent of a company’s global turnover, amount to a “tax” and seek to spread EU standards abroad.

“These severe fines appear to have two goals: to compel businesses to follow European standards worldwide, and as a European tax on American companies,” he wrote.

The rules could also benefit China, he said.

“These, along with other provisions of the DMA, stifle innovation, disincentivise research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations,” Jordan wrote.

He demanded Ribera to brief the judiciary committee by 10 March.

The DMA includes more stringent regulations for the largest technology companies, including Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft, as it seeks to create a level playing field for competition and ensure consumer choice.

The European Commission is working with companies to apply the DMA’s principles to Apple’s iOS platform, Google’s search engine and other offerings.

Online speech

Last month Jordan wrote to EU internal market commissioner Henna Virkkunen to express similar concerns over the Digital Services Act, saying its provisions “affect free speech in the United States”.

The EU has brought DSA actions against companies including X, formerly Twitter, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.

Jordan has previously pushed US social media firms to end content moderation practices.

Trump said in remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos that DMA and DSA fines were a “form of taxation”.