Civil society vs. big tech: EU should not cave in to Trump threats

How to deal with Silicon Valley companies when a US president protects them from regulation, taxation and sanctions in the EU with constant threats? For more than 40 civil society organizations from Europe, one thing is certain: Trump exploits every weakness. And any consideration for the sensitivities of the US government has encouraged the US to go even further. "The time has come for Europe to resolutely defend its regulatory sovereignty and take immediate action to prevent further interference in its internal affairs," reads the letter, which is addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

EU Commission caught between two stools

As the guardian of EU laws, the EU Commission is currently in a difficult situation: on the one hand, it has to negotiate the conditions for trade in goods and services with the USA under Donald Trump on behalf of the member states of the European Commission. On the other hand, as a supervisory authority, it is also responsible for enforcing EU law for many EU laws, particularly in digital and competition law. Recently, there have been repeated media reports that proceedings that had actually been concluded would not come to an official conclusion due to concerns in the College of Commissioners, the EU's government cabinet, or that planned penalties would be mitigated.

Just yesterday, the industry service Mlex reported that Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera was unable to prevail over Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič in a competition fine against the Google Group Alphabet for its advertising technology business. The motto is therefore now "compliance before punishment", meaning that the billions in fines that are possible on paper will only be imposed in extreme cases.

In addition to the proceedings under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which regulates platform responsibilities, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) under competition law and the general competition rules, the EU Commission is also an important supervisory authority for the AI Regulation and the Data Governance Act. The EU Commission also plays an important role in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) at one point: in the so-called adequacy decision, the question of whether US companies would protect personal data at a comparable level to EU companies under certain conditions.

Civil society demands steadfastness from the Commission

Some US companies such as Meta (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram), X and Apple have proactively called on the government to protect them against EU legislation that they believe discriminates against US companies. Donald Trump's government views EU laws and the associated fines as trade barriers and recently threatened to take action following the EU's customs deal.

The organizations, which primarily come from the field of digital civil rights, are now calling for a stand to be taken against such interference from Washington in EU affairs: "European democracy and the rights and freedoms of European citizens are not for sale, not for any price in the world". The letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is supported by organizations such as Lobbycontrol, Digitalcourage, AlgorithmWatch, the Wikimedia Germany association, the Center for Digital Rights and D64.

(afl)