ARLINGTON, VA — The American Consumer Institute (ACI) releases its statement regarding the recent EU ‘Gatekeepers’ announcement.
The European Union just announced the companies designated as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) – effectively targeting Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft. The DMA would prohibit companies labeled as gatekeepers from self-preferencing their own product, and it would allow rivals to promote their products on their platform.
Consequences for noncompliance include significant fines of total global income or forced divestiture, with repeat fines of up to 20% of total global revenues. Notably, all but one of the companies listed are American. Other international companies could have been included but were overlooked, despite meeting the criteria for inclusion. These unfortunate actions harm innovation and help China.
ACI’s president and CEO, Steve Pociask, agrees and states “Despite the EU’s assurance that the DMA is meant to protect competition, the result looks more like protectionism on the part of the EU and its intent deliberately attack American companies for their successes.“ He adds “American companies should not become victims of European tech envy.”
This assault on mostly American businesses should concern lawmakers as the EU tries to overregulate American big tech at the expense of consumers around the globe. Congress and the Administration need to respond immediately to these attacks.
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