European authorities “don’t care” where big tech firms like X, Meta, Apple, and TikTok are located and will apply EU digital rules regardless of who is running them, the head of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen has stated.
The warning comes amid recently launched European investigations against tech giants over alleged non-compliance with EU regulations. Their future business in Europe will also depend on the outcome of negotiations with the U.S. over President Donald Trump’s new tariffs.
Commission chief urges tech giants to abide by EU digital rules
The European Union is prepared to enforce its digital rules regardless of who’s in charge of big tech companies or where they are based, the President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen has declared.
“The rules voted by our co-legislators must be enforced,” the head of the executive arm of power in Brussels said, replying in writing to questions regarding Europe’s digital regulations asked by Politico, signaling the EU’s determination in that regard.
Von der Leyen stressed that the main reason for the EC’s recent decision to begin proceedings against U.S. tech giant Apple, the social network X, owned by White House adviser Elon Musk, Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the Chinese short video platform TikTok, among others.
On March 25, the European Commission announced it’s launching investigations against them, and also Google and Youtube owner Alphabet, citing concerns that measures these “gatekeepers” implement “fall short of effective compliance of their obligations” under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
“We apply the rules fairly, proportionally, and without bias. We don’t care where a company’s from and who’s running it. We care about protecting people,” the EU executive insisted in her remarks, which come amid heightened tensions over trade and security ties with the United States.
Welcome to Europe @VP Vance
Thank you for a good discussion on our shared challenges as allies.
From security and stability to the great promise of technology and the critical challenge of non-market overcapacity.
Looking forward to continued cooperation with @POTUS and you.… pic.twitter.com/qHNeF3Q9X4
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 11, 2025
Has Brussels decided to risk angering Washington?
The DMA is the EU’s law designed to make digital markets “fairer and more contestable.” Under the legislation, “gatekeepers” are defined as large digital platforms providing core services such as search engines, app stores, and messenger services.
The law lists a number of obligations and prohibitions for these providers, the largest of which are not based in the European Union. The act has been presented as a tool to comprehensively regulate “gatekeeper power” and complement existing EU competition rules.
Europe’s regulatory framework for the digital space, including the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, has drawn criticism from Washington officials. Vice President JD Vance attacked the EU’s digital laws for censoring free speech and stifling innovation.
During the election campaign last year, Vance warned the U.S. may reconsider support for NATO, if Brussels enforces its digital rules, which he later described as “onerous” in front of an audience that included von der Leyen, during an AI summit in Paris in February.
President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on European imports has raised European concerns that the EU might restrain itself from implementing the digital rules to avoid angering his administration amid talks over the future of bilateral trade. Meanwhile, fines under the EU digital acts have been delayed.
Ursula von der Leyen’s latest remarks on the matter point to EU resolve to enforce the rules, Politico noted in its article. They follow her recent interview with the German weekly Zeit in which she stated that “the West as we knew it no longer exists.”
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