Battleground: Big Tech – where American prices and the EU trade are colliding

From the moment when the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos ,, Meta Boss Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Apple Tim Cook and the chief of Google Sundar Pichai were seen to take privileged seats during the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January, it was clear that the relationship of us, the great technology with the White House, would be narrower to the second term of Trump.

Many of these executives had called Trump during his first mandate on issues such as climate change and immigration.

This time, they were clearly in the house, led by SpaceX and Tesla’s boss, Elon Musk, who spent nearly $ 300 million to help the president’s campaign and has since played a key role as an efficiency TSAR in the new diet.

However, the revelation of Trump's “Liberation Day” of prices and the subsequent political conduct of the roller coaster – currently benefiting from a 90 -day interruption for negotiation – launched Big Tech at the heart of a brewing trade war.

The EU is ready to put pressure on the United States by threatening its services from its services, where it has a trade surplus with the EU, if negotiations in the current trade war are breaking down, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said Last week.

“For them (large technological companies), Europe is a very attractive and rich market,” also has the market said The German media die of Zeit this week, adding: “It has 450 million people who, in comparison with the rest of the world, have a high standard of living and time.

Technological companies can be one of the options that the Commission explores, while US President Donald Trump has announced a 90 -day break in commercial confrontation.

We examine the variables that have an impact on the decision to include measures that will reach technological groups such as Meta, Google and Facebook.

1. Big Tech Decisions

The Landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA): EU laws that attack online illegal content and distortion of the digital market, have been criticized by technology giants since the republican administration of the American president Donald Trump took up his duties, saying that the rules are unfair.

Peter Navarro, a Trump's main advisor, openly accused the block of leading “law” against us Big Tech. In answerThe EU said that it “would not make any concessions on its digital and technological rules” within the framework of any commercial negotiation with the United States.

The European Commission began several probes under the DSA since the rules came into force a few years ago, but none of the surveys was completed, despite the definition of the non -binding deadline for March 25 of this year.

An investigation into non-compliance with the DMA should soon be closed concerning Apple and Meta, while waiting for a political decision to be taken at the highest level of the Commission.

“We are currently working on the adoption of short-term final decisions,” the commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said on Tuesday, while stressing that technical work was finished “for certain files”.

The Commission stressed that these DMA probes take place strictly according to the regulations which do not discriminate against companies on the basis of the country of origin. But the fact that most people under its scope are American means that decisions are now seen through the objective of the Brewing Trade War, despite everything.

On the other hand, the DSA probes are not yet advanced: with only an investigation into X – to allow dark models and not slow down the propagation of illegal content – making significant progress. An important factor that could complicate X's case is the CEO of the platform, Elon Musk, who is also a Trump government advisor.

Musk could be Personally responsible For a possible fine of several million euros for a violation of the DSA, according to the X business model, the commission indicated at the end of last year. This means that the Commission would also explain business income such as spatial exploration and neural technologies. DSA fines can total up to 6% of the company's annual world income.

It should be noted that the American authorities could in fact see the European Commission on competition. The Federal Trade Commission – The American antitrust executor – accuses the meta -abuse of its dominant position by buying WhatsApp and Instagram. A trial opened its doors before us judges on April 14.

2. Starlink

Starlink by Elon Musk could also be taken in the trade war. Several EU countries are wary of their dependence on satellite infrastructure belonging to muscles and seek to reduce strategic dependence. Whether it is a form of reprisals in the tariff struggle or for other reasons, this means that the star bond has been sucked in the orbit of the trade war.

Currently, Musk's Starlink satellites have played a vital role in maintaining Internet connectivity in Ukraine after the invasion of Russia. Some EU member states, such as Poland, have helped finance Starlink terminals to support Ukrainian resilience on the ground.

However, despite its importance in conflict zones and emergency interventions, Starlink remains largely absent from European households. The system is generally more expensive and slower than traditional wide -band operators on the continent, making it an impractical option for most consumers.

Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications American Commission, recently told Financial Times that Europe is likely to be captured between competing technological superpowers. “If Europe has its own satellite constellation then brilliant, I think it is better. But more broadly, I think Europe is a little taken between the United States and China. And it is somehow choosing,” he said.

The EU tries a third way by trying to develop its own alternatives. The IRIS2 project is in the pipeline and Eutelsat is also ready to get ahead of Starlink – but these projects could take time.

3. Member States call for digital tax

Member States, including France and Germany, have said they plan to include digital services in the EU response to American prices.

The French Minister of Economy, Eric Lombard, suggested hitting the use of data by Big Tech through regulations in an interview with the French media. The data is considered to be “black gold” for AI and the size of the European market makes it attractive to large technologies. Von der Leyen also pointed out that the EU was ready to introduce a tax on digital advertising income. A digital tax was under discussion at the OECD, until Trump torpedoed any chance of an agreement last January.

The EU could also strike Big Tech by deploying “the nuclear option”: its anti-coercion tool. This would allow the EU to withdraw licenses and intellectual property rights from foreign companies.

However, the taxation of American technological services would raise similar questions to the Trump's original tariff dam: it could inflict more self -control on Europe than on its planned targets and raise clumsy questions about the technological sovereignty and resilience of the block.

The assault of the pandemic and Russia in Ukraine and Russia in Ukraine led the commission to put pressure for “technological sovereignty” agenda in order to become less dependent on overseas regions.

But years later, there is little to show for that. Most Cloud services remain in the hands of a few American players, for example. And with regard to fleas – widely used for the automotive industry, space, defense and among other sectors – the EU has only 10% of the world's micropile market and largely depends on other regions of the world, numbers supplied by the commission indicates.

A wider group of EU member states, the so -called D9 + -Belgium, Cychy, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain – called To stimulate EU’s digital competitiveness and technological sovereignty during a meeting last month.

Dutch Minister for Economic Affairs, Dirk Beljaarts, announced Tuesday answer To parliamentary questions on the question of whether the country wants to reduce its dependence on American technology, that it seeks to “strengthen the digital autonomy of the government” by focusing on the development of a sovereign government cloud, as well as the limitation of “undesirable dependencies” on some technological societies.

But as with the rest of Europe, the targeting of digital sovereignty remains an aspiration, and aiming ourselves that great technology could mean cutting the ground under your feet.

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