LAST UPDATE | 26 Aug 2025

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS asserted the “sovereign right” to regulate the activities of tech giants within the bloc and rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that its rules unfairly harm US firms.

Trump has threatened further tariffs and export restrictions against countries that he says are targeting US tech firms.

“Digital Taxes, Digital Services Legislation, and Digital Markets Regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American Technology,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

His comments appear targeted at European countries and others who have created laws regulating the online world.

The European Union for example has rules like the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) covering competition and content moderation.

The UK also has a tax on digital companies, although Trump did not name specific countries or regions.

But he said that unless what Washington deemed as “discriminatory actions” were removed, he would “impose substantial additional tariffs” on countries’ products and institute export restrictions on US tech and chips.

“America, and American Technology Companies, are neither the ‘piggy bank’ nor the ‘doormat’ of the World any longer,” Trump wrote.

Brussels has adopted a powerful legal arsenal aimed at reining in tech giants, particularly through the Digital Markets Act (DMA) covering competition and Digital Services Act (DSA) on content moderation.

“It is the sovereign right of the EU and its member states to regulate economic activities on our territory,” European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters in response to Trump’s comments.

The EU has already slapped heavy fines on US behemoths including Meta and Apple under its new digital rules, which have faced months of pushback from Trump’s administration.

EU tech spokesman Thomas Regnier said the bloc could “firmly rebut” the idea pushed by Trump that its rules targeted US companies.

“The DSA does not look at the colour of a company, at the jurisdiction of a company,” Regnier said – noting that the last three enforcement decisions under the law had been against China’s AliExpress and TikTok, and Chinese-founded Temu.

Aimed at protecting consumers from disinformation and hate speech as well as counterfeit or dangerous goods, the DSA obliges platforms to swiftly remove illegal content or make it inaccessible.

Among its provisions, the law instructs platforms to suspend users who frequently share illegal content such as hate speech – something framed as “censorship” by detractors from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the US State Department.

“The claims that the DSA is a censorship tool are completely wrong and completely unfounded,” Regnier said.

“We’re not asking platforms to remove content. We’re asking them to enforce their own terms and conditions.”

In June, Trump called off trade talks with Canada in retaliation against Ottawa’s planned digital services tax, which would have applied to US multinational companies such as Alphabet, Amazon and Meta that provide services to Canadians.

Shortly after, Canada said it would rescind the taxes impacting US tech firms.

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed tariffs on allies and competitors alike, with varying rates for different countries’ products.

But sectors he has singled out for separate action – such as steel, aluminum and autos – are spared from these countrywide levels.

Instead, they have been hit with sector-specific duties.

Trump has wielded tariffs as a means to pursue various goals. A doubling of US tariffs on Indian products is set to take effect this week over its purchase of Russian oil — a key revenue source in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.