Ribera — who as executive vice president of the Commission ranks second to President Ursula von der Leyen — said the EU’s digital rulebook should have nothing to do with trade negotiations. Donald Trump’s team is seeking to overhaul the framework trade agreement he struck with von der Leyen at his Scottish golf resort in July.
The intervention lands at a sensitive time in ongoing trade talks. Washington views the DMA as discriminatory because the large technology platforms it regulates — like Microsoft, Google or Amazon — are nearly all American. It also takes exception to the Digital Services Act, which seeks to curb illegal online speech, seeing it as designed to restrict social networks like Elon Musk’s X.
Ribera said the rules were a matter of sovereignty and should not be brought into the scope of a trade negotiation.
“We respect the rules, whatever rules, they’ve got for their market: digital market, health sector, steel, whatever … cars, standards,” she said referring to the U.S. “It is their problem. It is their regulation and their sovereignty. So it is the case here.”
Ribera, along with EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen, oversees the DMA, which polices the behavior of large digital platforms and seeks to uphold fair competition.
She weighed in forcefully on comments Lutnick made after he met EU officials and ministers on Monday, saying “the European digital rulebook is not up for negotiation.”