A bloc of Republican lawmakers in the US Congress has called on President Donald Trump's administration to confront the European Union (EU) over its digital regulatory framework.
The letter, reviewed by Reuters and signed by 25 Republican members, focuses on the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA).
This legislation is aimed at curbing the market dominance of Amazon, Apple, Booking Holdings, TikTok owner ByteDance, Google, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.
Among those who signed the letter is Adrian Smith, who chairs the House trade subcommittee, along with six additional members of that subcommittee.
Their central argument is that the DMA and associated EU digital measures disproportionately target US-based firms.
The lawmakers raised particular concern over the anticipated extension of DMA obligations to cloud computing divisions run by Amazon and Microsoft, contending this would create compliance burdens that European and Chinese cloud providers would not have to shoulder.
They also took aim at an EU penalty against Google, anticipated this week, tied to alleged violations of the DMA, arguing the fine fails to account for adjustments Google has already made to its search offering.
The group also questioned the European Commission's designation of Apple, Meta and Amazon as “gatekeepers” under the legislation, while Chinese e-commerce platforms Temu and AliExpress have escaped the same classification.
They pointed out that these designations are determined by the scale of user bases within Europe.
“We write to bring to your attention the many ways the EU continues to pursue anti-competitive acts, policies, and practices as a tool of economic extraction and regulatory coercion against American firms and to encourage your administration to take decisive action before the EU further entrenches this anti-American regime”, the lawmakers wrote.
The letter states that should discussions fail to yield swift outcomes, Washington ought to deploy “all available tools, including but not limited to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974”.
It further warns that “the EU's access to the US market is not guaranteed and can be limited should the EU continue to pursue discriminatory acts, policies, and practices in the digital sector”.
As a point of contrast, the signatories highlighted that European companies face no such restrictions when operating within the American market.
In response, the European Commission dismissed suggestions of discriminatory treatment.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier stated that the bloc retains “the sovereign right to regulate economic activities on its territory”, a principle he said extends to digital policy, “where we will keep enforcing our rules in a fair and non-discriminatory manner - as we have always done”.
Last month, the European Commission had unveiled a technology sovereignty package designed to lessen the bloc's dependence on suppliers from outside the EU across areas including semiconductors, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and open-source technology.
The package comprises two legislative proposals – the Chips Act 2.0 and the Cloud and AI Development Act – alongside an Open-Source Strategy and a Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector.
