US warning against EU tech fines casts shadow over India's digital Bill

Group representing American tech industry calls proposed Indian legislation as a trade barrier

The Trump White House’s statement that European Union fines on Apple and Meta last week were “a novel form of economic extortion” could have a bearing on India’s draft Digital Competition Bill (DCB), which is modelled on EU legislation.

 

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which counts Google, Amazon and Meta among its members, last week petitioned the United States (US) government against DCB.

 

The EU on April 23 handed out its first-ever penalties — $500 million on Apple and $200 million on Meta — under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), evoking a sharp reaction from the White House. Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told reporters a day later that the US will not tolerate “this novel form of economic extortion”.

 

“The EU’s malicious targeting of American companies and consumers must stop,” he said, reiterating the Trump administration's position that such regulations “enable censorship” and pose a “direct threat to free civil society”. He observed that the DMA will qualify as a non-trade barrier.

 

Last week, CCIA labelled India’s DCB a similar barrier. In a four-page memo to the US government, the association outlined “India’s barriers to US digital service suppliers”.

 

The memo called for “avoiding ex-ante digital regulatory approaches similar to the EU’s DMA, such as the proposed Digital Competition Act [DCB]”. It said that DCB could potentially impact investment and innovation in India’s burgeoning digital markets.

 

CCIA’s work over the past 50 years has centered on promoting open markets and systems. According to the association’s website, its members employ more than 1.6 million workers, have invested over $100 billion in research and development, and contribute trillions of dollars in productivity to the global economy. 

 

CCIA asked the US government to assess the draft DCB, along with stakeholder input, to identify market distortions that would justify intervention. It also called for examining whether foreign investment in India might be affected by such a regulatory regime.

 

Its memo comes at a time when India is seen as a global frontrunner to strike a bilateral trade deal with the US, as pointed out by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday.

 

Other demands

 

CCIA calls for removing barriers to US digital service suppliers in several key areas. These include the expiration of the 2023 import authorisation requirement for laptops, tablets, personal computers, and small servers

 

It wants to allay India to address concerns regarding the Telecommunications Act, clarifying that services defined as telecommunications apply only to the narrow subset of traditional telephony services (i.e., circuit-switched voice).

 

The industry body is also lobbying for the exclusion of Cloud-based software from the scope of information technology and telecom products subject to mandatory testing and certification.

 

It also asked the Indian government to address concerns about the guidelines for acquiring and producing geospatial data and related services.