The European Union has insisted it will continue to enforce its regulations on technology companies, despite threats from US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs in response to what he claimed were rules that disadvantage American firms.
The EU’s rules protect rights, including freedom of expression, the bloc’s digital chief Henna Virkkunen said Monday on X, posting a letter addressed to the US Congress.
"I will keep enforcing them, for our kids, citizens and businesses," she wrote.
Last week Trump threatened to add tariffs on all countries with digital taxes, legislation or regulations, saying they were designed to harm or discriminate against American technology,
He has consistently criticised the EU’s two main pieces of legislation: the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which seeks to curb the power of tech giants, and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires large online platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content.
In the letter to the US Congress, Virkunen reiterated that the DSA and DMA were EU legislation with "no extraterritorial jurisdiction in the US or any other EU country".
She countered claims made by the US State Department and tech company leaders, like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, that the EU rules amounted to "censorship", stressing that the DSA upholds freedom of expression by protecting consumers not only against scams and fraud, "but also on defending our democracies and deliberate manipulation campaigns aimed at undermining free and fair elections".
Virkkunen also objected to Congress inviting her predecessor, Thierry Breton, to appear before US lawmakers.
The European Commission had previously stated that the rules governing the technology industry formed part of the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate economic activity. It rejected President Trump’s claim that the EU was targeting US companies, stressing that the regulations applied equally to all platforms and businesses.
"Tax and regulation issues are the preserve of our national parliaments and the European parliament," French President Emmanuel Macron said last week at a joint news conference with the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
"We won't let anyone else decide for us,” he said, warning that any move by the US to challenge the regulations would be met with retaliation from the EU.
"Should such measures be taken, it would qualify as coercion and prompt a response from the Europeans," he added, referring to the EU's anti-coercion instrument, which allows the bloc to punish countries seeking to pressure it to change its policies.
(with newswires)
