Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has rebuked the EU’s Digital Markets Act as an assault on US enterprise, due process and innovation.
Speaking at a “Little Tech” event hosted by venture capital firm Y Combinator on Wednesday, Ferguson piled onto the Trump Administration’s criticism of the DMA and posed the possibility of “retaliatory tariffs.
“My own view as an American is I’m very suspicious of laws that appear to have been written to get at American companies abroad,” Ferguson said.
The Republican chair said he shared the concerns that Big Tech platforms have used their “walled garden system” to thwart innovation but said adding to the arsenal of the European Commission was the wrong answer.
“If we think that Americans are suffering from anticompetitive conduct at home, we should address it here at home,” Ferguson said. “We don’t want Europeans doing it for us.”
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera has vowed that DMA enforcement will not succumb to pressure from the White House and Congressional Republicans.
Speaking at the same event on Wednesday, Ribera said that EU citizens want the government to fulfil its mandate of ensuring a technological landscape that provides strong privacy protections, interoperability, innovation and competition.
She said the DMA ensured that consumers would benefit from “rich biodiversity”. During Trump’s first term, it was clear that the US wanted to promote similar sentiments, Ribera said.
While Ferguson has promised aggressive enforcement against Big Tech, he said the DMA presented serious due process concerns. He warned that the regulations allowed the EU to issue penalties before companies can defend themselves.
“In America, if I think someone has committed an antitrust violation, I have to prove it in court,” he said.
He also complained that the EU plans to issue penalties based on worldwide revenues, creating the impression that the DMA is a form of taxing US companies.
Ferguson also complained that only one EU-based company is even qualified for the possibility of being designated a gatekeeper under the regulation.
Ferguson said he had participated in bilateral meetings with EU officials this week and told them that the US produces more innovative companies because the US government does not obstruct their business.
Olivier Guersent, EU’s director-general for competition, said at a GCR event on Tuesday that he expected strong collaboration between Brussels and Washington, DC, on antitrust enforcement. Guersent said the European Commission has already had productive conversations with Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater.
The event concluded on Wednesday.
