EU won't scrap tech regs just because Washington dislikes them

The EU has pledged to stand firm against US threats following fines levied against Amercian tech companies for breaching recently introduced digital laws. In the last five years, the world's richest trading bloc has introduced the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which regulates digital platforms, and the Digital Services Act (DSA …

[Rich 2]

It’s just not fair!

It’s taken a very long time, but the rest of the world has finally had enough of the Wild West behaviour of US tech companies. If they could collect a couple of brain cells together, the US gov would see that openly and brazenly abusing your customer base (in more ways than anyone can count), spreading downright lies about people you don’t get on with (which for the US gov is rapidly adding up to everyone that’s not licking the orange one’s arse), openly stealing stuff and then complaining when the victims try to stop you, and just generally being a complete c@&£ at the expense of whoever happens to be in the firing line is not acceptable.

Go EU

[Goodwin Sands]

Re: It’s just not fair!

>tech regs

If the tech regs apply equally to all companies of all nationalities operating in the EU then the US has nothing to legitimately complain about.

>world's richest trading bloc

Well that's a rather odd praise to sing. And what does it mean exactly?

Can't be combined GDP of bloc members (which would be the usual metric) because other blocs are bigger - US alone sans any bloc is 50% bigger. So it must be refering to GDP per capita, which is a strange thing to reference in this context. But fair enough I suppose. It does though have a scraping the bottom of the barrel feel to it, desperately trying to find something that places the EU in the top spot.

[Wolfclaw]

Careful EU, the terrorist TRUMP may invade Brussels and rendition Ursula von der Leyen to a blacksite ................ what am I saying, go TRUMP !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Vance has already said something along these lines, but specifically referring to if the people of Britain or France should ever have the temerity to elect an "unfriendly" government.

[Anonymous Coward]

Vance should be renditioned to Haiti

I understand he has lots of fans there

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Vance should be renditioned to Haiti

A zombie Vance would be scary.

[DoctorPaul]

Re: Vance should be renditioned to Haiti

How would you tell the difference?

No, I'm not planning on visiting the States any time soon.

[Anonymous Coward]

> Careful EU, the terrorist TRUMP may invade Brussels and rendition Ursula von der Leyen to a blacksite

In the improbable case that he would wish to dispose of his best co-conspirator in Europe and speaking as an EU citizen, if he offers to do that, I'll pay for the flight, and a crate of beer for each of the crew.

Maybe then the next guy will think twice before trying to ignore Schrems I, Schrems II and, the way things are going, Schrems III.

[m4r35n357]

To maybe gain some compensatory upvotes, why not conjugate the verb "to rendition" for our amusement?

[Bebu sa Ware]

why not conjugate the verb "to rendition"

I am not a fan of US pidginization (sic) of English, but a model conjugation might be to condition which as an intransitive verb is attested in the 15th century. (Merriam Webster.)

The process of creating a pidgin is uncomfortably close to creating an Orwellian Newspeak — Eric Blair must be turning, nay spinning, in his grave if he were aware that his dystopian warnings were scripting the first quarter of the the 21st century. :(

Sobering to recall that in the short period between June 1914 and June 1919 the then unthinkable happened—great empires, some centuries old, disintegrated. A mere five years with little or no contemporary intimation of the oncoming catastrophe. History is as much a warning as it is a lesson.

[I could be a dog really]

the terrorist TRUMP may invade Brussels

Hmm, I wonder what this lot is doing over here. Are they going to invade Denmark and rendition it's leaders (presumably to end up in court accused of "not supporting US security by handing over Greenland"), or Brussles, or somewhere else ?

[Extreme Aged Parent]

As a passing thought the almighty trump could be offered a swap of Greenland or Florida on the assumption that all of the Floridian residents would go as well...

[David M]

Punishing US companies

The EU regulations clearly do not "punish US companies" as long as those regulations apply to all countries, which they do.

[Doctor Syntax]

"Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said last year that the bloc should prove its rules do not punish US companies or review them."

They're same rules for everybody unlike, say, tariffs.

The only ones being punished are those who don't follow them.

[Ken Hagan]

But, but ... US companies can't follow EU law because they have to obey the bits of US law that overrides EU law. Most other countries don't have this problem, so it must be discriminatory.

[Anonymous Coward]

As a westpondian, I'm really liking the EU rules. For instance, now that the EU has declared that future electronics shall be chargeable via USB-C, we don't have near so many proprietary cables (mostly Lightning for our household).

Can the EU pass laws that say that foreign companies not only have to uphold the EU laws for customers in the EU, but also for customers in the US, if they want to keep doing business in the EU? Please?

[Doctor Syntax]

EU tech companies such as Accenture, Amadeus, Capgemini, Mistral, and SAP "have been able to operate freely in the United States for decades."

If he keeps threatening we'll send Capita over there as well.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now - that is nasty!

[Boris the Cockroach]

Careful... that could be construed as a war crime....

[Bebu sa Ware]

Careful... that could be construed as a war crime....

The US "doesn't do" the ICC† nor a host of other ratified conventions like UN Law of the Sea so probably not a grave risk.

As if Crapita could be approach anything as offensive as native trumpisstani shite.

† One of the reasons Madame et M. George Clooney are now French citizens.

[JimmyPage]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Because for all this flannel, they will still run Windows.

[alain williams]

IT dependance on USA companies

The rest of the world needs to urgently free itself from the risk of the USA government applying pressure via IT services or software - when the Orange one next has a brain fart.

There has been a move to do so recently on the grounds of data sovereignty - but our IT systems suddenly not working would be much more serious.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: IT dependance on USA companies

Given the lack of plausible operating systems from non-US companies, does this mean 2026ought to be the year of Linux on the desktop?

For added laughs, the cost could be billed as a national security expenditure and thereby count towards the 5% that we're supposed to be spending on defence

[JohnMurray]

Re: IT dependance on USA companies

Well, Windows could reasonably be construed as a terrorist attack - especially on update day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: IT dependance on USA companies

especially on update day

Please don't remind me, my employer laptop is booked for it's Windows 11 downgrade tomorrow. Lets just say I haven't planned any work for the whole day.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Despite Drumpf's abject ignorance on the subject, the Americans do NOT rule the world!

[ChoHag]

> the Americans do NOT rule the world!

They pretty much did, de facto, from late 1945 until about January 2025.

[Will Godfrey]

Oh the poor dears.

Somebody took their sweeties away.

[Anonymous Coward]

First remove self-imposed chains

If the EU are serious about this then they need to drop any ISDS agreements with the US - i.e. the trade deals that let companies sue foreign governments in a special private court if they think some law or regulation passed by those governments will reduce the company's profits.

While they're at it, the EU should also repeal existing laws making it a criminal offence to reverse engineer and/or develop add-on software for commercial products (e.g. to enable a right to repair, or to move your own data out of a cloud system). This is important if you want to establish any kind of "digital independence".

[Anonymous Coward]

In a nutshell

Speaking as someone who had an early involvement in DMA (as part of a political party I cooperated with for a while).

The original idea behind DMA was on the one hand, to promote so-called digital sovereignty and on the other, that the right to privacy and choice (data portability) of EU citizens would be protected.

What came out of the legislative process is nothing like that. It is essentially a tool to try to force foreign companies (and local, if there were any) to share your data with various European security agencies and, while we're at it, ban any opinions "we" do not approve of.

People in the West tend to expect that in every story there is a good guy and a bad guy. Well, guess what?

[Fred Dibnah]

“The EU has pledged to stand firm against US threats”

Translation: the EU will give in to the USA’s threats. Again.

[DrXym]

Want to do business in Europe?

Then abide by its rules. They are set in place to ensure privacy and security and no more discriminate against US firms than they do European ones. If a firm steps out of line and does so egregiously it'll get a heavy fine for its troubles.

But it does emphasize that Europe (and the UK) really need to reduce their dependence on US firms. e.g. there are European based cloud services who do take the law seriously and maybe its time for governments and companies to think long and hard about digital sovereignty.

[localzuk]

The more they push...

The more the USA complains, and pushes back against EU regulation of businesses operating within its territory, the more likely it is that EU customers will stop using those businesses.

There's already an active movement looking to move away from US cloud providers. Some governments are looking at replacing Microsoft stuff etc... Sure, its only a little bit now, but ultimately, EU countries and the EU make their own rules for their own back yard.