The recent $5 billion antitrust fine levied against Google by the European Commission may be forcing U.S. tech companies to rethink how they structure their products in Europe. But it is far from the only impact the EU will have on how these companies operate. From the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to its new cybersecurity directive, U.S. tech companies are being pushed to comply with laws whose impact extend far beyond Europe.
To some, EU regulatory actions can be seen as part of a larger move by the European Union to assert its principles and laws on the global market, just as the United States has done in the past. In particular, the EU’s data privacy and antitrust laws have the potential to directly influence how U.S. privacy regulations, and the business models of U.S. tech companies, evolve in the near future.
