The EU Wants to Grow Homegrown Tech. Its Courts Keep Making That Impossible

- The European Union has long struggled to produce globally dominant tech companies (like the US's Google, Apple, or Amazon), and its "Digital Single Market" strategy is meant to foster homegrown champions. - The "Brussels Effect" refers to the EU's ability to set de facto global standards through regulation and court rulings; EU antitrust law (Articles 101/102 TFEU) is notoriously aggressive. - A series of EU court decisions have blocked or heavily fined European tech firms attempting to merge (e.g., Siemens/Alstom) or compete globally, while US tech giants often face fines they can easily absorb. - Critics argue that the EU's competition framework, designed to protect consumers from monopolies in the 20th century, now mostly prevents European companies from achieving the scale needed to compete with US and Chinese rivals.