The EU once again showcases its sword to the US digital giant | Digital | EU

Recently, the European Union has once again shown its sword to the US digital giant. According to foreign media reports, after Facebook's parent company, Metaverse, was fined 1.2 billion euros by the European Union, Apple has been fined 13 billion euros in taxes by the EU, and the two sides have filed a lawsuit in the European Court of Justice, the highest judicial body in the EU. Experts point out that the technology competition between the United States and Europe is becoming increasingly fierce, and EU related measures highlight the high importance placed on maintaining network security and developing the digital industry.

Tightly tighten the regulatory "fence"

According to US media reports, EU regulatory agencies recently announced that a "metaverse" company will be fined up to 1.2 billion euros for violating EU data protection regulations by transmitting EU user data to the United States, and ordered to stop transmitting EU user data to the United States within 5 months.

Since the EU's General Data Protection Regulation came into effect in 2018, EU regulatory agencies have repeatedly issued fines to US digital giants. It is reported that the EU's fine on "Metaverse" companies has reached a historic high, far exceeding the fine of 746 million euros imposed on US e-commerce giant Amazon in 2021.

Another American digital company, Apple, is facing a tax dispute with the European Union. According to British media reports, the European Commission has appealed to the Supreme Court of the European Union, demanding the overturning of the ruling of the EU General Court and the payment of 13 billion euros in taxes by Apple. The European Court of Justice has held a hearing on this matter, marking the official entry of the case into the European Court of Justice proceedings.

The Apple tax case can be traced back to 2016. At that time, the European Commission determined that Apple was using a tax treaty with the Irish government to evade taxes. Afterwards, both sides engaged in years of entanglement around the case.

In recent years, the European Union has continuously strengthened its regulatory efforts against American digital giants. From 2020 to 2022, the European Union launched a series of digital governance laws, covering various aspects such as data privacy, digital competition, content governance, cybersecurity, and platform responsibility. Among them, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act introduced in 2022 further clarify the behavioral obligations and prohibited areas of enterprises in the digital field, tightening the regulatory "fence" in the European digital field.

Suffering from multiple impacts

For a long time, Europe has been facing multiple impacts caused by the disorderly expansion of American digital giants, and the excessive development of some digital platforms has posed a threat to the political ecology and social stability of Europe.

Xin Hua, Director of the European Union Research Center at Shanghai Foreign Studies University, pointed out in an interview with this newspaper that the EU has strengthened its regulation of American digital giants based on multiple considerations. Firstly, the EU lacks its own large digital companies, and the European digital market is almost monopolized by American technology companies. In this regard, it is difficult for the EU to compete with the United States. Secondly, large digital companies have enormous social influence through their mastery of information and data. From a micro perspective, these companies can influence user information acceptance, even manipulate public perception, and influence social opinion; From a macro perspective, these companies are able to grasp the macro trends of the national economy and social operation, and even shape the direction of social operation. Therefore, strengthening the supervision of large digital companies has been a policy trend in Western countries in recent years.

Under the trend of rapid development of digital economy and digital technology, increasing digital legislation and strengthening the construction of "digital sovereignty" have become the active demands of the European Union. In the EU Commission's 2023 work plan, digital legislation ranks second among the six major policy issues, closely following environmental legislation. The plan also clearly proposes the requirement of synergy between digital transformation and green transformation.

Xin Hua pointed out that the EU's proposal of "digital sovereignty" aims to centralize the regulatory power of each member state over digital platforms and the digital economy at the EU level, enabling the EU to exercise this power as a supranational collective to better adapt to the needs of social development and cope with increasingly fierce international competition.

Facing pressure and challenges

In the fields of data protection and digital industry, there has always been fierce competition and structural contradictions between the United States and Europe. In Xin Hua's view, Europe's efforts to build "digital sovereignty" will face pressure and challenges from the United States.

"The competition for dominance in the semiconductor field will be one of the core areas of competition in the digital industry between the United States and Europe in the future." Xin Hua pointed out that semiconductors, as key hardware, are an important foundation for artificial intelligence, quantum computing, information and communication technology, and are a critical, hub type, and strategic industry. However, in the field of chips, Europe still lags behind the United States and has a strong dependence. In the field of artificial intelligence, Europe is also clearly lagging behind the United States. Europe has always been good at strengthening its regulatory capabilities over industries and markets to increase its supervision of American technology giants.

"Whether consensus can be reached within the EU is also a key factor affecting the achievements of 'digital sovereignty' construction. Whether this supranational and exclusive power can be truly implemented still faces many challenges." Xin Hua pointed out that due to the different proportions of the digital economy and the varying levels of development of related industries, there are differences within the EU on this issue. In addition, the development of the digital economy in low tax countries such as Ireland is closely related to the American industry and has to some extent become a "springboard" for American digital giants to enter Europe. The Apple tax case not only reflects the conflict between the United States and Europe, but also to a certain extent, the differences between Ireland and the European Union.

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