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Title: As Stocks (and Cryptocurrencies) Drop After Tariffs, France Considers
Retaliating Against US Big Tech

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/04/07/01821...

"U.S. stock market futures plunged on Sunday evening," reports Yahoo Finance,
"after the new U.S. tariff policy began collecting duties over the
weekend..." The EU will vote on $28 billion in retaliatory tariffs Wednesday,
Reuters reports. (And those tariffs will be approved unless "a qualified
majority of 15 EU members representing 65% of the EU's population oppose it.
They would enter force in two stages, a smaller part on April 15 and the rest
a month later." But France's Economy and Finance Minister has an idea: more
strictly regulating how data is used by America's Big Tech companies.
Politico EU reports/A>: "We may strengthen certain administrative
requirements or regulate the use of data," Lombard said in an interview with
Le Journal Du Dimanche. He added that another option could be to "tax certain
activities," without being more specific. A French government spokesperson
already said last week that the EU's retaliation against U.S. tariffs could
include "digital services that are currently not taxed." That suggestion was
fiercely rejected by Ireland, which hosts the European headquarters of
several U.S. Big Tech firms... Technology is seen as a possible area for
Europe to retaliate. The European Union has a €157 billion trade surplus
in goods, which means it exports more than it imports, but it runs a deficit
of €109 billion in services, including digital services. Big Tech giants
like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta dominate many parts of the
market in Europe. Amid the market turmoil, what about cryptocurrencies, often
seen as a "proxy" for the level of risk felt by investors? In the 10 weeks
after October 6, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed 67% to $106,490 by December
10th. But by January 30th it had started dropping again, and now sits at
$77,831 - still up 22% for the last six months, but down nearly 27% over the
last 10 weeks. Yet even after all that volatility, Bitcoin suddenly fell
again more than 6% on Sunday, reports Reuters, "as markets plunged amid
tariff tensions. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, fell more than 10%
on Sunday."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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