Big tech companies, with the support of the Trump administration, are challenging what they see as ‘hostile rules’ on artificial intelligence and market dominance in the EU.
According to the Financial Times (FT), Facebook owner Meta is leading the fight against the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act this year, while tech lobbyists in the EU believe they can successfully ‘water down’ the implementation of what is considered the world’s strictest regime for cutting-edge technology.
According to people familiar with the matter, Silicon Valley is pushing Brussels to limit the application of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which prevents major online platforms from abusing the market and can impose large financial penalties on companies.
Big Tech’s efforts are supported by the new administration. US Vice President JD Vance used his recent trip to Europe to counterattack the EU’s tech legislation, denouncing the bloc’s ‘onerous international’ rules. He also called for AI regulation that does not ‘strangle’ the rapidly developing sector.
Lobbyists for other big tech companies pointed to tech executives, including Google chief Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Apple chief Tim Cook, who were in the front row at Donald Trump’s inauguration, as an example of the new political reality in Washington.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s technology chief, told the FT that Europe was fully committed to enforcing the rules despite US pressure.
Earlier this month, however, the European Commission withdrew its planned Artificial Intelligence Liability Directive, designed to make tech companies pay for any damage caused by AI tools or systems, as part of a wider deregulatory push from Brussels.
Virkkunen said the decision was taken in a bid to encourage AI investments amid pressure from US tech companies.
Some European industry officials and lawmakers interpreted the move as a sign that limiting action against big tech companies could become a bargaining chip in transatlantic negotiations on trade and even Washington’s commitment to European security.
The most immediate fight will center on the Artificial Intelligence Code of Practice, expected in April, which will determine how companies can implement the rules of the landmark Artificial Intelligence Act, such as how they must address ‘systemic’ risks in AI.
Meta made it clear to an audience in Brussels earlier this month that it would not sign the voluntary code, with the company’s senior lobbyist Joel Kaplan saying it imposed ‘unenforceable and technically impossible requirements’.
Kaplan also warned that without a US partnership with Europe on AI, China could win the AI race.
According to many familiar with the matter, the social media group led by Mark Zuckerberg felt ‘abandoned’ by the previous Biden administration when opposing EU regulations.
But it now feels that the US administration favors its point of view and could put more pressure on the bloc.
In September, the company spearheaded an open letter signed by 50 groups, including Sweden’s Ericsson and Spotify, arguing that Europe’s regulatory framework was stifling innovation and leaving the continent behind in AI development.
Meta also said it could not send its multimodal big language models and its latest AI assistant to the EU due to the bloc’s privacy rules.
Other US tech companies such as Google have also stepped up their criticism of regulations on AI. Another major lobbying effort by Big Tech is the implementation of the Digital Markets Act, designed to combat the dominance of ‘digital gatekeepers’ of the largest online platforms.
If found guilty of non-compliance, companies could face heavy fines of up to 10 percent of their global turnover.
Alphabet, which owns Apple, Meta, and Google, has been the target of investigations after the new rules came into force in 2023. But since Trump’s election victory in November, the European Commission has been reassessing its investigations.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Trump directly criticized EU fines on American companies, calling them ‘a form of taxation’.
A senior official at a US tech giant said Silicon Valley groups want either a reopening of the DMA or clarifications to narrow its scope and provide clearer guidance on how it will be applied.
