The European Union once again showcases its sword to the US digital giant

Tech 2023-06-10 08:39:26 Source: Network

Recently, the European Union once again showcased its sword to the US digital giant. According to foreign media reports, after the parent company of "Facebook", "Metaverse", was fined 1

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

Tight supervision of the "fence"

According to US media reports, EU regulators recently announced that "Metaverse" companies were fined up to 1.2 billion euros and ordered to stop transmitting EU user data to the United States within five months because they violated EU data protection regulations by transmitting EU user data to the United States.

Since the EU's General Data Protection Regulations came into effect in 2018, EU regulatory agencies have issued multiple fines to US digital giants. It is reported that the EU's fine for "Metaverse" hit a record high this time, far higher than the fine of 746 million euros imposed on Amazon, the US e-commerce giant, 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 EU Supreme Court, demanding the overturning of the EU ordinary court's ruling and requiring Apple to pay 13 billion euros in taxes. The European Court of Justice has held a hearing on this matter, marking that the case has officially entered 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 recklessly. Since then, both sides have been fighting around the case for many years.

In recent years, the European Union has continuously strengthened its supervision of 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.

Suffer from multiple impacts

For a long time, Europe has been suffering from multiple impacts caused by the disorderly expansion of American digital giants. The excessive development of some digital platforms once threatened Politics of Europe's political ecology and social stability.

Xin Hua, director of the European Union Research Center of Shanghai International Studies University, pointed out in an interview with this newspaper that the EU has strengthened its supervision of American digital giants based on various considerations: first, the EU lacks its own large digital companies, and the European digital market is almost monopolized by Science and technology in the United States 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 can 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.

With the rapid development of the 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 2023 work plan of the European Commission, digital legislation ranks second among the six major policy issues, closely following environmental legislation. The plan also clearly proposes the requirement of collaborative progress 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 various member states on digital platforms and the digital economy at the EU level, enabling the EU to exercise this power as a supranational collective, in order 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.

"Striving for dominance in the semiconductor field will be one of the cores of the competition between the US and Europe in the digital industry in the future." Xin Hua pointed out that semiconductor, as a key hardware, is an important foundation of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, information and communication technology, and is a key, hub and strategic Sex industry. However, in the field of chips, Europe is still in a backward position compared to the United States and has a strong dependence. In the field of artificial intelligence, Europe also lags significantly behind the United States. Europe has always been good at increasing its supervision of American technology giants by strengthening its regulatory capabilities in industries and markets.

Whether a consensus can be reached within the EU is also a key factor affecting the achievements of the construction of 'digital sovereignty'. 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 American industries, and to some extent has 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 some extent reflects the differences between Ireland and the European Union.

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