By Samuel Stolton and Oliver Crook, Bloomberg
The European Union’s crackdown on Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., and Alphabet Inc.’s Google isn’t a bargaining chip in trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump, according to Teresa Ribera, the EU’s competition chief.
In an interview, Ribera rejected suggestions that enforcement of the landmark Digital Markets Act — slammed by Trump as an unfair tax on Silicon Valley — could be sacrificed as part of a deal to dodge punitive EU tariffs pitched by the White House.
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“Of course not,” Ribera said on Bloomberg TV. “We do not challenge the United States on how they implement their rules or how they adopt regulations,” Ribera said. “We deserve respect in the same way.”
The EU is racing to clinch a deal with Washington before tariffs on nearly all its exports to the US jump to 50% on July 9. Trump has chided the EU — which he has said was created to “screw” the US — over its goods surplus and perceived barriers to American trade. The EU estimates that US duties now cover €380 billion ($446 billion), or about 70%, of its exports to the US.
Over recent months, the US President has specifically called out the EU’s tech regulations as the kind of non-tariff trade barrier that his so-called reciprocal tariffs are intended to target with the White House signaling out previous EU penalties as a form of tariff.
Despite the threats, the EU has pressed ahead with enforcement of its digital antitrust rules, with recent fines against Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. of €500 million and €200 million respectively.
Ribera, a Spanish socialist, added Thursday that negotiations with Apple had been going “very well” since that April EU ultimatum on how the company should re-engineer its hugely profitable App Store in order to comply with the DMA. She said an update in the case would be coming soon.
Over recent years the EU has issued costly penalties against firms, including more than $8 billion in fines against Alphabet Inc.’s Google and a separate order for Apple to pay Ireland back taxes of €13 billion.
Under its abuse-of-dominance rules, it has also forced changes out of Amazon.com Inc.’s marketplace platform and Apple’s tap-and-go chip, while also investigating Microsoft Corp. video conference software, Teams.
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