U.S. Feds Must Stand Up to European Assault on American Innovators

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kara Zupkus, (224)-456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) slammed the European Union’s (EU) European Commission announced $2 billion fine against Apple following a complaint from the music streaming service company Spotify, based in EU member state Sweden. The fine is the latest in a long series of substantial fines levied against several American technology companies by the EU over the last several years. With new laws coming into effect in Europe with the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Digital Markets Act (DMA), it’s expected that such fines will increase in frequency and size, effectively imposing taxes on the global consumers of American technology products and services. TPA calls on Congress and the Biden administration to stand up to the EU’s blatant targeting of some of the most innovative and valuable parts of America’s economic engine.

TPA Executive Director Patrick Hedger offered the following comments:

“This latest fine against Apple is perhaps the most egregious example of the EU’s long history of naked protectionism against American tech companies. The fine came effectively at the request of Spotify (one of the only Europe-based tech companies of any prominence), in spite of the fact Spotify is the market leader in music streaming, owning over half of the marketplace in Europe. There’s no logic behind the European Commission’s decision beyond outright rent-extraction on behalf of a constituent business.

“This behavior by some of America’s leading economic and geopolitical partners has gone on long enough. It is reckless, arbitrary, abusive, and an indicator of why the EU, despite having a large, wealthy, and well-educated population has no firms of any comparable measure to Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, or Meta. As the DSA and DMA come into full force, riddled with all the kinds of subjectivity, vagary, and excessive fines that form the hallmark of EU bureaucracy, it can only be expected that the haphazard and spiteful targeting and taxing of productive and valuable American businesses will continue.

“Congress and the Biden administration must not continue to idly, or in some cases jealously, watch America’s purported allies target some of America’s most valuable assets and impose enormous costs ultimately borne by American consumers and shareholders.”