EU’s Absence from G7 Competition Enforcers Summit’s Joint Statement Suggests Transatlantic Tensions on Tech Regulation, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following the Justice Department, the FTC, and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority issuing a joint statement upon the G7 Competition Enforcers Summit—which did not include the European Commission—the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from Aurelien Portuese, ITIF’s director of antitrust and innovation policy at the Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy:

The absence of the European Commission from the joint statement signals a transatlantic dispute in regulating digital competition, which contradicts the EU-U.S. Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue, part of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, announced last June in Brussels.

This unfortunate dissension is unsurprising given the unwillingness of the European Union to include the upcoming Digital Markets Act within the scope of the transatlantic discussions.

Consequently, the European Commission’s absence sends warning signals and hints at a potential failure of the EU-U.S. Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue.

More on this issue, see:

• Aurelien Portuese, “The EU must make (digital) peace, not war, with the United States,” NewEurope, June 10, 2021.
• Aurelien Portuese, “The EU Proposal for a Transatlantic Tech Partnership Is Not Credible. Here’s Why,” Innovation Files, April 15, 2021.
• Dynamic Antitrust Series, “Transatlantic Antitrust,” ITIF event, June 18, 2021.