On Tuesday, the EU Commission announced that seven companies self-reported meeting “gatekeeper” standards for regulation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Despite European officials’ previous insistence that the DMA wasn’t designed to protect European companies, the list includes five American tech firms and no EU businesses.

Companies that qualify will face limits on what services they can provide on their platforms, the hosting of third-party apps, and the treatment of consumer data. Prior to the DMA’s passage last year, the Biden Administration repeatedly voiced concerns that the bloc’s new regulations would unfairly target American companies with rules that European companies would be exempt from.

“The Biden Administration was right from day one that the DMA was designed to target American firms and protect European companies, and this list is confirmation,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich. “The EU is tilting the playing field with regulations that discriminate against Silicon Valley, and that’s bad for our tech sector and bad for American jobs.”

Last year, Chamber of Progress released polling on American voter attitudes towards the DMA. The poll found that a plurality of Democratic voters (38%) would like to see the Biden Administration work with European policymakers to reduce the impact of the act on US workers and companies, while a plurality of Republicans (35%) would like to see the president impose retaliatory regulations against European companies.

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Chamber of Progress (progresschamber.org) is a center-left tech industry policy coalition promoting technology’s progressive future. We work to ensure that all Americans benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly.  

Our corporate partners do not have a vote on or veto over our positions. We do not speak for individual partner companies and remain true to our stated principles even when our partners disagree.