After the scathing speeches by US Vice President J.D. Vance at the AI Summit in Paris and at the Munich Conference, it's time for action: while Emmanuel Macron will meet Donald Trump this Monday, February 24 at the White House against the backdrop of the more than tense peace negotiations in Ukraine, the United States sent two written "messages" intended for regulators a few days earlier: a memorandum addressed to the entire world, and a specific letter to the European Union (EU).
The two texts directly attack European taxes and regulations targeting American digital giants such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) in Europe.
Act 1: the memorandum
On Friday, January 21, US President Donald Trump first published a "memorandum" whose purpose is unequivocal. It is to "defend American companies (…) against extortion and unfair fines and penalties abroad." His idea: to warn the whole world, including France and Europe, that any tax targeting American platforms and behemoths will result in customs tariffs.
In this document, we can read in particular that " foreign governments have increasingly exercised extraterritorial authority over American companies, particularly in the technology sector, hindering the success of these companies and appropriating revenues that should contribute to the well-being of our nation, and not to their».
Many countries, including France and the European Union, have sought to impose financial participation on digital giants that have escaped any taxation for several years, or less taxation, in particular thanks to tax optimization mechanisms. Paris, for example, has adopted a Gafa tax, a streaming tax, a tax on videos, etc.
Laws that "limit cross-border data flows, force American broadcasting services (…) to finance local productions and impose network usage fees" are "designed to plunder American companies", believes the American administration. “All of these measures violate American sovereignty and offshore American jobs, limit the global competitiveness of American companies, and increase American operating costs while exposing our sensitive information to potentially hostile foreign regulators,” it continues.
Now, it warns, whenever a foreign government “imposes a fine, penalty, tax, or other charge that is discriminatory, disproportionate, or designed to shift significant funds or intellectual property from U.S. companies to the foreign government or domestic entities favored by the foreign government,” the U.S. administration will impose tariffs. Or take other action to redress the harm and imbalance.
In this document, Washington targets not only taxes, but also “regulations imposed on U.S. companies by foreign governments that could hinder the growth or anticipated operations of U.S. companies.” This theoretically includes regulations that recommend, for certain hosting of particularly sensitive data, the French SecNumCloud, as well as regulations such as the DSA (Digital Services Act, the European regulation on digital services) or the DMA (the Digital Markets Act, the European regulation on digital markets).
Any violation of these texts theoretically results in up to 10% of global turnover for any recalcitrant company. The American administration also specifies that it intends to resume its investigations begun during Donald Trump's first term. These targeted taxes on digital services enacted in several European countries, including France.
Act 2: the letter
Then last Sunday, a letter sent directly to the European Commissioner for Competition, Teresa Ribera, increased the pressure, reports Reuters. "We are writing to express our concerns that the DMA (Digital Markets Act) could target American companies," wrote the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, to the European Commissioner – his letter has not yet been published.
The text, consulted by our colleagues, directly criticizes the DMA, this European legislation that has applied since March 6 to the largest messaging services, search engines, operating systems such as Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok) and Microsoft. The DMA imposes much stricter obligations on them than before, supposed to put an end to the abuses of dominant position by digital giants, with the aim of guaranteeing fair competition conditions and offering more choice to consumers.
But for the Republican representative, this type of regulation mainly gives an advantage to European companies. The planned fines (up to 10% of global turnover) have "two objectives: to force companies to comply with European standards worldwide and to constitute a European tax on American companies," Jim Jordan says.
The DMA requirements "stifle innovation, discourage research and development and hand over vast quantities of highly valuable proprietary data to adversary companies and nations," including China, he continues. They could also "benefit China," he regrets.
The letter asks Teresa Ribera to respond by March 10. The latter, who was reacting to the so far verbal attempts of the American administration, had already responded a week earlier that Brussels would not modify laws adopted by European legislators.
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