US Threatens Penalties Against European Tech Firms Amid Regulatory Fight

U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to finalize a trade framework they announced this year. The United States has been pushing Europe to open up its tech sector to American firms. But U.S. officials have complained that the European Union has not walked back broader regulation of company business practices while also proceeding with investigations of major American tech firms like Google, X, Amazon and Meta.

In a social media post, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which has carried out the negotiations, said that the European Union and some member states had 'persisted in a continuing course of discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives' against American companies.

The United States had raised concerns with the European Union about these issues for years 'without meaningful engagement,' all while allowing European companies to operate freely in the United States, it said. If the European Union continues these policies, the United States would 'have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures,' the U.S.T.R. said. It named fees and restrictions on service companies among the possibilities, and said it would use the same approach against other countries that echoed Europe's strategy.

The post singled out potential European service providers that could be targeted by name, listing Accenture, DHL, Mistral, SAP, Siemens and Spotify, among others.

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