European Union (EU) bureaucrats will stop at nothing to punish large and successful companies that improve consumers’ lives. To make matters worse, the EU’s regulatory overdrive is disproportionately targeting U.S. companies and American consumers.
The House Judiciary Committee recently announced it “subpoenaed Europe’s secret 183-page censorship order to [the social media platform] X.” The findings are deeply disturbing. According to the Committee, “The [EU’s] first ever fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA) was against X and Elon Musk for €120 million — nearly 6 percent of its GLOBAL revenue — for defending free speech. Now we know why: … Euro bureaucrats fined X because it innovated its blue checkmark system and refused to give into demands from misinformation pseudoscientists.” Unfortunately, this is the very tip of the iceberg. President Trump and Congress must continue pushing back against this foreign red tape.
Punishing X for improving its services is troubling, but not surprising. Following the implementation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple was mandated to allow third-party app marketplaces to exist on its products in the EU. Despite real security concerns posed by this onerous requirement, Apple has done its best to comply by allowing other stores and subjecting them to fees to mitigate these risks and ensure a safe experience for consumers.
But pricing changes have not been allowed — because of the very regulators who have been implementing DMA requirements. The company notes, “The European Commission [EC] has refused to let us implement the very changes that they requested. In October, we submitted a formal compliance plan and they have yet to respond. The EC is using political delay tactics to mislead the public, move the goal posts, and unfairly target an American company with burdensome investigations and onerous fines.” And now, European bureaucrats are reportedly trying to blame Apple for third-party app stores’ business failures.
Beca…
