The “credibility” of the EU’s new tech legislation is at risk if the bloc does not pursue its enforcement efforts, despite US government opposition, according to the EU’s antitrust boss.
The “credibility” of the EU’s new digital markets legislation is at risk if the bloc does not pursue its enforcement efforts, despite US government opposition, according to the EU’s antitrust boss. “I think that there's a kind of contradiction with the American authorities saying that they want to protect digital markets to ensure users can choose … and at the same time, they contest the Digital Markets Act being adopted by the European Union that intends to respond to these demands,” Teresa Ribera told journalists at a press briefing today on the sidelines of an antitrust conference* in Washington, DC.
“It doesn't work very well to say that we cannot protect our consumers and that we cannot protect our market,” she continued.
She said that some of the Big Tech companies had more users in the EU than in the US.
“Saying that complying with the law [of a country where a company operates] is something that goes against the interest of a third country, that’s very difficult to be explained and to be understood.”
Ribera was responding to questions about criticism from the head of the US Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson.
Yesterday he criticized the EU’s DMA and equated non-compliance fines as a tax targeted at US companies (see here).
The two met yesterday following his remarks, in a planned meeting in Washington.
The DMA duties kicked in one year ago. The commission has advanced probes into Apple and Meta. It alleged last year that the two companies were not complying with certain aspects of the DMA.
Ribera today echoed comments made by her officials that there were important factors that would likely argue against big fines for the gatekeepers.
“It is not the same [as] other cases where there may be a long standing story of infringement, with reiteration of the behavior, with a very clear understanding of what it should have been done and it has not been done.”
Antitrust fines for Big Tech cases have climbed in recent years into the billions of euros on the back of abuses running for years.
*American Bar Association Antitrust Spring Meeting 2025. Washington, DC. April 2-4, 2025.
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