Published
October 01, 2025
The European Commission’s first statutory review and public consultation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is underway. As we predicted, the DMA is degrading user experience, chilling innovation, and straining transatlantic competitiveness—without demonstrable benefits to consumers. In our recent submission to the Commission, the U.S. Chamber urges a policy reset.
Our filing makes three key points:
First, the DMA’s design and thresholds overwhelmingly capture U.S.-headquartered firms while leaving major non-EU and EU companies outside scope. De facto discrimination fragments global rules, raises trade friction, and risks retaliation.
Second, contrary to the DMA’s stated goal of creating more open digital markets, the measure is harming consumers. A concrete example: Apple’s newest AirPods live translation feature, which represents next-gen technology, was not released in the EU. It’s an avoidable loss for European consumers.
Third, enforcement has consisted of overreaching global turnover-based fines, opaque processes, and overlapping legal demands, creating uncertainty that diverts investment dollars to compliance and complicates operations for businesses, including the SMEs that rely on designated platforms.
Brussels should change course and pivot to outcomes that enhance contestability, innovation, and consumer welfare. Ideally, that would mean abandoning the DMA in its entirety. Short of that, the Commission should:
- issue clear, public guidance and predictable timelines;
- impose any proportionate penalties tied to EU turnover only;
- suspend daily fines during good-faith negotiations and appeals; and
- ensure consistent and transparent processes to clarify expectations.
In addition, data access, portability, and interoperability must come with robust privacy, security, and IP safeguards and be aligned with other EU laws. Finally, Brussels should avoid expanding the scope to new services, including cloud services or AI as a technology.
To its credit, the Trump administration has challenged the EU’s approach publicly and privately. Just as important is the need to prevent regulatory contagion, as DMA-style proposals are already surfacing elsewhere, most recently Brazil. The administration should continue to press for clear guardrails, including non-discrimination, proportionality, due process, and security first interoperability.
The Chamber supports competitive, contestable markets. We advocate for policies that reward innovation and expand choice. The current DMA review is the moment for a much-needed course correction. Brussels should recalibrate, and the U.S. must continue to press Europe to secure meaningful improvements.
About the author
Jordan G. Heiber
Jordan Heiber leads the Chamber’s international privacy and data flow policy portfolio and manages a team responsible for the full suite of digital policy issues, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and more.
