The United States and the European Union are fighting for who controls large technologies
President Trump is just escalating the long-term conflict on who writes large-scale technical rules. The move comes after Brussels has made more provisions, this time targeting the area where artificial intelligence is booming.
The latest Flashpoint is the EU’s new “code of practice” for AI, a series of voluntary guidelines released on Thursday aimed at solving public safety issues. The regulation, while not legally binding, is based on the EU’s Landmark AI bill, and companies with strong regulatory scrutiny on August 2 deadline. Openai announced plans to sign the code on Friday, while members of tech hall group CCIA, which includes Google and Meta, criticized the guide.
The Trump administration is openly hostile to the EU’s attempt to regulate American tech companies. Trump described the group’s huge fines as “overseas blackmail” while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claims they are backdoor tariffs.
Silicon Valley has expanded this view. In a January announcement, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said his company “will work with President Trump to re-overthrow the government that is following U.S. companies”, particularly calling on European regulators. These tensions paralyze trade negotiations. In May, Trump administration officials told the New York Post that negotiations were stalled and the EU refused to give up the multi-million-dollar fines for U.S. tech giants.
What fines have the EU imposed?
Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), European antitrust laws, Apple, Google, Amazon and the Yuan are all considered “gatekeepers”. The name brought a wave of fines and forced its EU operations to make changes. Recently, Meta was fined more than $200 million after the European Commission discovered that its “paid or agree” model violated the DMA. Meta decided to fight the findings and would not propose changes, meaning there could be more fines, according to a Reuters report on Friday.
The European Union’s cave or double?
Despite Trump’s pressure, the EU appears to intend to maintain its regulatory independence. Earlier this month, European Commission technology chief Henna Virkkunen told Politico that the group’s rules on digital competition and AI were not negotiated.
However, the EU has shown some willingness to compromise. The group recently pulled the proposed tax on digital companies from its upcoming budget, a move seen as a win for the Trump administration.
The question now is whether these new tariffs will backfire and cause a more difficult crackdown. In response to the first round of tariffs in April, EU President Ursula Von der Leyen opened up and targeted countermeasures if the conversation failed. Although the group delayed a series of retaliatory measures that have come into effect over the past Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that the EU’s most concerned weapon is still on the dining table: anti-stubborn tools.
Macron wrote on X: “With European unification, it is more than ever to advocate the determination of unions to firmly defend European interests. This means speeding up preparations for a reliable countermeasure in the absence of a deal on August 1, including all tools against stubbornness to speed up the preparations for reliable countermeasures.”
Along with the President of the European Commission, France announced a level of 30% tariff on exports from the EU to the United States on August 1, which was also very strongly opposed.
The announcement comes after the committee’s strong involvement within weeks of…
— Emmanuel Macron (@emmanuel Macron) July 12, 2025
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Anti-lubricating instruments are considered to be the “bazooka” in the EU’s arsenal. Although traditional tariffs hit the physical object, the tool allows the EU to impose trade restrictions on what it believes is economic coercion. If the U.S. is found to be suitable for the bill, the U.S. tech giants that offer digital services such as Apple, Google and Meta could be very vulnerable.
Ultimately, both sides are working to protect their interests: the Trump administration wants to defend the US dominance in the global tech industry, while the EU wants to regulate digital platforms its own way. As negotiations continue, they will not only decide the fate of tech companies captured in the middle, but also set rules for global tech sovereignty in the coming years.
But for the big tech companies trapped in a firefight, the message is clear: It’s a war on digital sovereignty, and the rules of the next era of the internet can be written as much in Brussels as Washington.
