US lawmakers urge Trump to act against EU tech rules, suggest trade probes

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, July 21 (Reuters) - A group of 25 U.S. lawmakers has written to U.S. President Donald Trump urging him to act against Europe's tech rules including launching trade investigations, saying EU digital policies unfairly target U.S. Big Tech. 

In a letter seen by Reuters, the lawmakers focused on the European Union's Digital Markets Act aimed at reining in the power of Amazon, Apple, Booking Holdings, TikTok owner ByteDance, Google, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.

"We write to bring to your attention the many ways the EU continues to pursue anti-competitive acts, policies, and practices as a tool of economic extraction and regulatory coercion against American firms and to encourage your administration to take decisive action before the EU further entrenches this anti-American regime," the lawmakers wrote in the letter.

The European Commission denied discriminating against U.S. companies.

"When it comes to our rules, the EU has the sovereign right to regulate economic activities on its territory," Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.

"This of course also applies to our digital regulation, where we will keep enforcing our rules in a fair and non-discriminatory manner - as we have always done," he said.

The lawmakers, all Republicans and seven of them members of the House of Representatives trade subcommittee, including Adrian Smith, who chairs that subcommittee, said the likely inclusion of Amazon and Microsoft's cloud units under the DMA "would impose unprecedented regulatory burdens that European and Chinese cloud competitors would not face."

They also criticised EU regulators' fine against Google expected to be announced this week for alleged breaches of the DMA, saying the sanction ignored the company's significant changes to its search service.

They questioned the Commission's designations of Apple, Meta and Amazon as gatekeepers under DMA rules while Chinese retail giants Temu and AliExpress are excluded. Such labels depend on the number of users in Europe.

"If a dialogue does not deliver quickly, the United States should use all available tools, including but not limited to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974," they said, invoking an unfair trade practices statute that allows the U.S. to impose tariffs or take other retaliatory measures.

"It is important to make clear that the EU's access to the U.S. market is not guaranteed and can be limited should the EU continue to pursue discriminatory acts, policies, and practices in the digital sector."

The lawmakers cited European businesses' unfettered access to the U.S. market as a comparison.

The Commission said a transatlantic digital dialogue was of mutual interest.

"We believe there is significant potential to deepen cooperation across a broad set of digital issues, including those identified in the EU-US Joint Statement, while respecting our regulatory autonomy," spokesperson Regnier said.

(Reporting by Foo Yun CheeEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Deepa Babington)