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Former EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said Europe must stand firm by its digital rules as the United States pushes for soften implementation of landmark legislation in exchange for tariff relief.
European officials and their US counterparts met in Brussels on Monday for the first time since the EU agreed to a deal imposing 15% tariffs on European products in July and made pledges to buy energy, weapons and invest majorly in America.
The Trump administration is now pushing for softer implementation of EU digital rules for big tech companies in exchange for relief in key sectors like steel and aluminium, currently tariffed at 50%. The EU is hoping to improve the quota and improve the terms.
Vestager said the EU must stand by its landmark legislation of the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act approved during her tenure.
“This is not crazy,” she told Euronews. “This is not against anyone. This is normal. It is what you would ask in a normal market.”
“Promises were made to Europeans that digital services would be safe to use,” she added.
Vestager, who served as EU Commissioner from 2014 to 2024, rose to international fame for taking on Big Tech giants, issuing antitrust fines against Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon – a stance that once earned her the nickname “tax lady” from Donald Trump.
She also played a central role in bringing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into force, the landmark regulation designed to rein in the power of the largest online platforms, and which some in Washington have viewed as an attack on US economic interests.
“We have promised Europeans that their services would be safe to use for their mental health, for democracy, and that is of course core in any democracy that you stand by the promises made,” Vestager told Euronews.
A European official told Euronews after the US-EU talks Monday that steel, aluminium and digital are two separate dossiers and should be treated as such.
US pushes Europeans to loosen digital rules for tariff relief
EU trade boss Maroš Šefčovič and the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met on Monday.
Lutnick, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and negotiated on his behalf a trade deal with the EU over the summer introducing 15% tariffs, said that European should reassess the way they implement their flagship policies on digital regulation if they want further tariff relief.
Lutnick did not call to remove the rules but did say the way in which they are applied should be “more balanced” for American tech companies.
Brussels is desperately seeking to obtain a reduction of the 50% tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on European aluminium and steel in June under pressure from the industry.
The US does want the EU “to put these rules away, but find the balanced approach that works for us,” he told reporters in Brussels. “Then we will, together with them, handle the steel and aluminium issues.”
Lutnick and Greer also met EU Tech Commissioner Henna Virkkunen who stressed in a statement the importance of the Digital Market Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), the two landmark digital regulations applied in the EU. The comments suggest the Commission is not ready to water them further for the time being.
To counter the US offensive on its digital legislation, EU Trade Commissioner Šefčovič said that the EU is working hard to explain its legislation to the US and stressed that there no discriminatory practices applied to US companies. The rules, he argued, are the same for everyone operating in the EU single market regardless of their origin.