US House Judiciary’s Jim Jordan Asks EU Antitrust Chief Teresa Ribera To Clarify Rules For Big Tech
The chairperson criticized the heavy fines for violations, expressing concerns about benefits to China
The US House Committee on the Judiciary, chaired by Jim Jordan, has asked the European Union (EU) antitrust chief Teresa Ribera to clarify how she enforces the rules reining in Big Tech, whilst stating they appear to target companies.
The request came after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum warning that his administration would scrutinize the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) that “dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the EU.”
The DMA has a list of dos and don’ts for Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking.com, ByteDance, Meta Platforms and Microsoft to secure a level-playing field and offer more choices to consumers.
In his letter to Ribera, Jordan expressed concerns that DMA could target American companies, and the rules subjected them to burdensome regulations and give European companies an advantage. He criticized fines of up to 10 percent of global annual revenues for violations.
He added, “These severe fines appear to have two goals: to compel businesses to follow European standards worldwide, and as a European tax on American companies.”
Taking a swipe at the requirements, he said that China could be the beneficiary.
“These, along with other provisions of the DMA, stifle innovation and disincentivize research and development. They hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations,” Jordan said.
He urged Ribera to brief the judiciary committee by 10 March.
Meanwhile, the European Commission, where Ribera is the second most powerful official after its president, Ursula von der Leyen, denied aiming American companies.