This briefing examines a growing tension at the heart of EU digital regulation: how the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is being applied to artificial intelligence.
France has a habit of playing with fire when it comes to taxation, and the backlash is usually delayed. For decades, the use of production taxation, which duplicates traditional taxation, has undermined French competitiveness.
Europe’s ambition to lead in emerging technologies is being held back by a fragmented and risk-averse regulatory culture. Despite repeated promises to reduce red tape, EU institutions continue to introduce overlapping digital laws that place a heavy compliance burden on startups, reinforce incumbent advantages, and discourage innovation.
Effective regulation should serve as a catalyst – not a constraint – for innovation and long-term competitiveness. In digital markets, where business models evolve rapidly, fixed regulatory benchmarks – such as market share or price levels – can unintentionally stifle the dynamism that drives progress. The European Union’s (EU’s) Digital Markets Act (DMA), though ambitious in its objective of curbing the dominance of Big Tech gatekeepers, risks locking digital markets into rigid structures by imposing one-size-fits-all obligations that are ill-suited to the iterative and experimental nature of innovation.
As the Digital Markets Act (DMA) enters its implementation phase, the European Commission is investigating whether the proposed solutions of dominant tech firms (gatekeepers) comply with the mandates of the DMA.
The controversy that has been unfolding on social media involving the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, and the owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, has a deeper meaning than meets the eye.
The European Commission has made the first move in the great game of digital regulation. And naturally, it decided to go after the biggest player of them all – Apple.