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In a letter seen by Euronews and sent to the US Congress, Vice-presidents Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen defend EU digital legislation, which they claim applies to companies regardless of where they are located. It comes a day after MEPs also wrote to US authorities justifying DMA’s enforcement.
ADVERTISEMENTVice-Presidents Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen have insisted that the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) does not target US companies and applies agnostically to digital platforms designated under its rules as “gatekeepers”, in a letter responding to questions from the US Congress seen by Euronews. “The criteria for gatekeeper designation are based on objectively identified and transparent quantitative thresholds. They do not allow the Commission to discriminate against any company based on the location of its headquarters,” the two Commissioners wrote in the letter, sent on Thursday, adding: “This is confirmed by the fact that two of the gatekeepers which have so far been designated under the DMA are headquartered in the European Union and in China respectively.”In 2023 and 2024, the Commission identified seven gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act: American platforms Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft; Chinese ByteDance; and Dutch Booking.com.The DMA has been the subject of several attacks since Donald Trump came to power in the US, the latest coming from the US Congress where two representatives, Jim Jordan and Scott Fitzgerald, sent a letter questioning European digital legislation, claiming the DMA targets US compagnies and calling on Teresa Ribera, the EU competition commissioner, to justify the statute. “We write to express our concerns that the DMA may target American companies,” the two representatives wrote on 23 February, adding that fines levied under EU legislation were tantamount to European taxes. They also claimed the DMA with hinders innovation: “Certain innovative products and services offered by American companies will not be released in the EU or are being restricted because of the DMA and other European laws and regulations.”“The DMA keeps the door open to the next wave of innovation in vital digital markets,” Ribera and Virkkunen replied to the Congressmen, adding: “It allows companies to become more independent from large digital platforms in terms of distribution of their products and services and to develop innovative business models. It also provides more choices for consumers.”The DMA was originally designed to combat the domination of few tech giants on digital markets. “Only in cases in which a gatekeepers fail to comply with the obligation under the DMA despite engaging in a regulatory dialogue, enforcement by way of sanctions may become necessary,” the letter continued, adding “the objective of DMA enforcement, as any other piece of EU law is to ensure compliance – not to issue fines.”The Commission has launched a number of investigations under the DMA, the results of which should be known in the coming weeks. The American companies under the lens include Apple, Alphabet and Meta.On Wednesday MEPs led by Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (France/Renew), Andreas Schwab (Germany/EPP) and Anna Cavazzini (Germany/Greens) wrote to US Attorney-General Pamela Bondi and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick defending the application of the DMA, in another letter seen by Euronews.“Many American companies are not only benefiting from the DMA but are also actively calling for its enforcement,” they wrote, citing “Epic Games which is launching an alternative app store to Apple’s and Google’s in the EU, and Meta, which seeks interoperability with Apple to develop new products, stand to gain from these new rules.” The letter claimed that Netflix, Disney and other streaming companies, “currently burdened by Apple’s and Google’s high app store fees, would also benefit from a fairer competitive landscape under the DMA—just like Google in the cloud computing sector or DuckDuckGo in online search.”
