Contrary to the opinion expressed by Rana Foroohar (Opinion, February 5), the US and the EU are both working to tackle the excess power of large companies in tech and other sectors.
For many decades, the EU has used regulation to great effect to tackle market failures and protect consumer interests in such areas as telecoms and card payment charges. The EU has led the world in terms of tackling the excess power of big tech companies with its groundbreaking General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, soon to be followed by the Artificial Intelligence Act. In antitrust policy, the EU and its member states, free of the restrictive US focus on consumer prices, have adopted trailblazing decisions against the likes of Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple, which are now the subject of actions by other jurisdictions.
The EU’s guiding principle across the board has been to uphold a competition enforcement standard based on broader values including consumer choice, innovation and quality rather than simply price. While greater focus should continue to be placed on effective enforcement of the laws we have, it is encouraging that the US and the EU are now moving in the same direction to make markets work for all of us and address the big societal and economic questions that are affecting consumers and citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.
Monique Goyens
Director-General, The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), Brussels, Belgium
