By Edith Hancock


The European Commission's new chief competition enforcer pushed back against concerns that the regulator might weaken its efforts to curb Big Tech companies in the bloc ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration next week.

"It is our duty to preserve the proper implementation of the law," Teresa Ribera said Thursday on the sidelines of an event in Brussels. The Financial Times reported on Jan. 14 that EU officials might be reassessing how the bloc will wrap up investigations into Meta Platforms, Apple and Alphabet's Google under the Digital Markets Act, the EU's new antitrust rules targeting tech giants.

The DMA forces the world's largest and most powerful technology companies to make it easier for rivals to do business on their own ubiquitous platforms. Those companies face fines of up to 10% percent of their annual worldwide turnover if the regulator determines they are breaking the law.

Ribera said there is "no freezing, no reassessment" of enforcement, adding that she was "100% confident" the watchdog would stick to its own deadlines in advancing its Big Tech probes, which are expected to progress by March this year.

Her remarks come after chief executives from some tech giants spent the past few weeks publicly criticizing what they see as the EU's penchant for cracking down on Big Tech ahead of Trump taking office. Meta Platforms' Mark Zuckerberg said on Jan. 10 that the incoming U.S. government should defend tech companies from EU enforcement.

"No matter if the consumers are European or the consumers are Americans, we may face the same challenges," she said, adding that cooperation between antitrust authorities in Brussels and the U.S. "has been good" and hopes that will still be the case under Trump.


Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-16-25 1218ET