Taxpayer Watchdog Slams EU’s Latest Tech Overreach

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, the European Commission issued two binding orders under the Digital Markets Act requiring Google to make its Android and Search platforms more accessible to competitors. The measures require Google to let third-party artificial intelligence (AI) assistants access key Android features on equal terms with Google’s AI products and to share sensitive Google Search data with rival search engines and AI-powered search services.

In response to the EC’s announcement, David B. McGarry, Research Director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, offered the following statement:

“The European Commission has issued a warning: Do not succeed. If technology companies innovate too effectively or if their products are markedly superior to their competitors’, regulators will come calling. Google, having innovated tirelessly and maintained a legitimate competitive advantage for years, has been told that it must give over sensitive information about itself and its operations to prop up rivals. Intellectual property and trade secrets mean shockingly little to European Union bureaucrats.

“But, as they say, it’s worse than that: the EC will require Google to share sensitive search data with its competitors, data which users entrusted to Google with the confidence that it would remain private. And, adding, another layer of folly, these data are likely to be sent not only to European tech companies—itself a violation—but to companies under the sway of the West’s geopolitical rivals, such as China. Short-sighted attempts to establish faux competition are one thing, endangering the national security of America and her allies is another. These dangers will not only haunt Europeans but Americans passing through, or residing in, the European Union, including government and military personnel.

“The continent is edging ever closer to a crisis point. Eventually, its heavy-handed rules will, in fact, break the internet as it now exists, at least for European users. Having smothered its own technologists, the Europeans are driving away American technology companies.

“If the Europeans lack the will or ability to correct course—as seems to be the case—American policymakers, especially those in the Trump administration, ought to exert maximal diplomatic pressure to protect the interests of American tech companies, American users, and American national security.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.