Washington’s looming tariffs threats against the EU should not influence the bloc’s antitrust investigations against US Big Tech that are set to come to an end next month, MEP Bernd Lang has told Euronews.
“The Digital Market Act is not linked to trade policy,” MEP Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament trade committee, told Euronews, explaining that the EU shouldn’t take into account its trade relations with the US when deciding on DMA probes on Big Tech.
In the midst of Donald Trump’s trade offensive against the EU, antitrust policy is being called into question. Probes against Alphabet (which owns Google), Apple and Meta, launched under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark EU antitrust legislation, are due to be completed by 25 March.
The tariffs announced by Donald Trump on EU steel and aluminium are meanwhile due to come into force on 12 March.
Lange however said that even if these investigations are not in the balance, the EU should negotiate to avoid tariffs. “We have one month to see if the negotiation is possible. And if nothing is possible then it’s totally clear that our counter measures will apply,” Lange told Euronews, adding:** “I see at the moment no possibilities to avoid a conflict.”
Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič was on Tuesday heading to the US for meetings with Kevin Hassett, the director of the US national economic council, the Secretary of commerce-designate Howard Lutnick, and Jamieson Greer, the trade representative nominee, aimed at avoiding a trade war.
Donald Trump also announced last Thursday reciprocal tariffs on US trade partners on the basis of “country-by-country” examination, which should take weeks before being finalised.
When asked if reciprocal tariffs risk dividing EU member states in their support to EU retaliation measures, Lange is confident that member states share the same economic interests because supply chains are so interlinked.
“The suppliers of cars are located all over Europe. In Hungary we have a big car industry, in Italy too. We have really unified interest towards the US. Economic interests are similar,” he said.
The MEP is planning to go States-side in April to meet Greer himself, he told Euronews. If he can, he will go before.
On the tools that the EU should prepare, Lange said: “We are always in a defensive mode, so it depends on what the US are doing. We are sticking to a rules-based trading system. The US tariffs on steel are illegal because they are totally above the WTO bound tariffs from 1994. So it’s clear that we have to build some counter measures.”
He added that “ if the US put tariffs on cars, on wine or other products, it will be answered by tariffs on some US products. If there are tariffs established as a political pressure then we have the anti-coercion instruments which will be used to reduce the pressure of the US tariffs.”
Since 2023, the EU has an anti-coercion arsenal to protect itself from unfair practices from third countries. If dialogue with the Trump administration fails, the regulation includes restrictions on the right to participate in public procurement tender procedure, restrictions on licence, or for instance restrictions on trade in services and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
“While we are committed to finding a win-win solution, a mutually beneficiary outcome with our American friends, we are also prepared to defend our legitimate interest as necessary,” Commission’s spokesperson Olof Gill said on Tuesday.
“We [the EU] are prepared, we have been preparing for more than a year,” he added.
