The European Commission said today that the bloc’s landmark tech laws, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), remain untouched in an upcoming statement on the EU-US trade deal.
On Tuesday, the Commission reiterated that the bloc’s flagship digital laws, specifically the DSA and the DMA, will not even be mentioned in an upcoming joint statement on the EU-US trade deal, expected to be published imminently.
“What we’re not doing is changing our rules,” said a senior EU official during a briefing for journalists on the upcoming trade agreement. “None of the things are touched,” the official also emphasised, referencing the DSA and DMA.
The sister regulations were only formally adopted by the EU back in 2022 and it’s fair to say that enforcement (especially of the DSA) remains a work in progress.
In an interview with Euractiv earlier this week, the European Parliament’s top trade lawmaker, Bernd Lange, warned that “there is a risk” that EU digital laws could be scrapped to appease the US administration. President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly attacked foreign laws which take aim at US tech giants as unfair digital taxes.
But speaking to Euractiv on Tuesday, German EPP lawmaker Andreas Schwab, who was the rapporteur of the DMA, said he’s not worried – predicting, on the contrary, that “confirmations” the Commission has given parliamentarians “will be upheld”.
“Digital to legislation is part of European Regulatory Competition Policy. It’s in the interest of everyone, also of American companies,” he went on, before further emphasising “there is no change in the application of rules just because of trade policy issues.”
Despite the repeated assurances of the Commission’s commitment to the digital rulebook, US counterparts have continued to put out polar opposite claims. In interview on CNBC last week, US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, said that the EU’s digital services taxes and “attack” on US tech firms was still “on the table.”
The DSA, which regulates harmful content online, has also been repeatedly attacked by Republican lawmakers. Most recently, a US delegation led by MAGA politician Jim Jordan, visited Brussels after releasing a report branding the law a “censorship” tool.
Likewise, Meta’s Joel Kaplan (an ex-Republican politician) has slammed the DMA, the bloc’s Big Tech regulation, as an attempt to “handicap successful American businesses.”
(nl)
