Apple, Meta, Google win pause: EU postpones digital tax
While the European Commission was preparing to include a revolutionary "digital tax" in its budget, Donald Trump threatened to impose duties in response to digital duties - and the core levy instantly disappeared from the list. This seems like an elegant capitulation: instead of putting pressure on Big Tech, it's a diplomatic "okay, later".
What this means for Big Tech
For the tech giants - a huge exhalation of relief. The EU decision removes the threat of additional bureaucracy and allows them to continue to operate under the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts already in force, rather than under a new comprehensive fiscal attack, albeit delayed rather than cancelled. It is true that the fact of the EU's concession is a signal to the market: the pressure on the IT sector may return, but later, and in other forms.
However, the logic itself remains unchanged: the EU is simply changing tactics - not by tax, so by levy, not head-on, so through ecology and digital sovereignty. Apple Meta and Google may be regrouping their defences, but economies like Ireland, whose budgets depend on corporations, may face difficult choices .
Tactfully retreating, the EU is preparing B plans - perhaps through e-waste trafficking, tobacco, or tax levies on big companies. But the important thing for Big Tech is that time has been bought, the game is on, and the outcome is still far from final.
Source: Politico
