This piece originally appeared in the Washington Examiner.
On July 4, as most people were celebrating our independence with fireworks and barbecue, Europe was quietly plotting to establish more control over American tech companies. That day, the European Union quietly released a proposed addendum to bolster its data privacy regulation.
The addendum comes after Ireland slapped Meta with a record-breaking $1.3 billion fine under the General Data Protection Regulation . It seems European regulators want GDPR enforcement to be even heftier — and costlier.
With this recent push to accelerate extraterritorial enforcement, the EU is clearly attempting to further target and harm American businesses. Amid global competition for rapid technological innovation, the United States must leverage trade negotiations to break Europe’s harmful protectionism.
