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Lawmakers ask Biden to tell EU to stop ‘unfairly’ targeting U.S. tech companies

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Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash.

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The President is being urged by a bipartisan group comprising 30 lawmakers Joe BidenTo pressure European leaders to change the language in their Digital Markets Act, so it doesn’t unfairly target U.S. tech firms.

The group was led by Reps. Suzan DeBene (D-Wash.) and Darin LeHood (R-Ill.). They wrote Wednesday that they were “greatly concerned” that the EU’s proposal to promote competition among digital platforms unjustly targets American workers. It considers certain U.S. tech companies as “gatekeepers”, based on discriminatory and subjective thresholds.

This letter is being sent as legislators are discussing competition reforms in their country that would seek to restrain the Big Tech companies’ power. Two such billsWith bipartisan support, the bill has already been passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

While the White House tried so far to keep the topic of competition reform domestically and internationally under wraps, recent releases by the White House revealed that they have released an update. statementIt is a Politico article supports “the bipartisan progress being made in Congress” but is concerned about “distinct elements” of the EU’s plans.

Original version of the Digital Markets Act announced by the European Commission in 2020To address the issues of online competition that regulators worldwide, including the U.S., are currently dealing with. This includes issues such as tech companies placing their products higher than others on their platforms.

Wednesday’s lawmakers wrote that while they agree with the need to further protect consumer privacy and consumers’ data, they also feel that American technology companies have been unfairly excluded from the DMA. The lawmakers cited a Financial Times articleCiting an EU lawmaker that suggested last year, American tech giants should be praised Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google MicrosoftThese “biggest challenges” to competition policy in Europe.

They called DMA’s parameters “defacto discrimination”.

They wrote that the DMA, as it stands now, was not driven by market share concerns but rather by the desire to limit American companies’ access to Europe to support European businesses.

Additionally, they expressed concern about the DMA not being applied to large Chinese businesses like Tencent and Baidu. These companies are already competitively advantaged by being supported and protected in China, where they have access to 1.3 billion Chinese consumers.

“The EU accepts that we need to come up with joint solutions for China’s digital dictatorship, surveillance regime and violations of human rights,” wrote the legislators. It should therefore avoid encouraging companies to be complicit in these dangerous practices.

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