Y Combinator urges the White House to support the European law on digital markets
Y Combinator, one of the most prolific startup accelerators in the world, sent a letter urging the Trump administration to openly support the European law on digital markets (DMA), a large element of legislation that aims to open the power of the Big Tech market.
The DMA designates six technological companies as “guards” on the Internet – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Bytedance, Meta and Microsoft – and prevents these ankles of technology from engaging in anti -competitive tactics on their platforms, in favor of interoperability. The law became applicable in May 2023, and it is has already had a major impact on American technological companies.
In a letter to the White House Posted on X By YC’s head of public policy, Luther Lowe, the startup accelerator argued that the DMA should not be grouped with other European technological legislation, which US officials often criticize as dominating.
Instead, YC supports in the letter that the spirit of the European DMA is in accordance with the values that promote – and not for American innovation.
“”[W]He respectfully exhorts the White House to recalibrate its position towards the digital regulations of Europe, staging a clear line between the measures which hinder innovation and those which promote it, “said the letter from YC, which was also signed by startups supported by YC, independent technological companies and professional associations.
It is not quite surprising that YC will be released in explicit public support in the DMA. After all, the accelerator occurs as “Little Tech” champion – an American ecosystem supported by a technological startup company.
YC supports in the letter that DMA opens key avenues to create opportunities for American startups in AI, research and consumer applications, and prevents large technological companies from boxing of small businesses.
More specifically, YC in his letter points to Apple Would apparently return its LLM version of Siri until 2027Years after competitors have put generative vocal assistants on the market. YC maintains that this represents a lack of competitive pressure, noting that third -party developers of AI voice assistants are unable to integrate their services into Apple operating systems
YC could take Big Tech on the task for its reported anti -competitive behavior and take fire in companies like Apple, which supports the start -up ecosystem supported by a company. But YC and others supposed to be little technological aligned become quite influential in Washington.
Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), which published a “small technological program” last year, has a mill to try to influence political battles at the federal and local levels. According to data from Open secretsA16Z’s contributions during the 2024 US electoral cycle totaled $ 89 million. YC, always a smaller actor in American politics, contributed around $ 2 million.
What is less clear here is how the Trump administration will react to the long -term DMA – and the approval of YC.
President Trump reported in January that he Protect American technological companies against too zealous European regulators. However, Trump also Historically, it was hard for large technological companies Like Apple, Google and Meta.
At the AI of the AI of Paris action in February, Vice-President JD Vance criticized some of the EU laws against technological companies, including the Digital Services Act and the General Data Protection Regulations. However, Vance did not mention the DMA, which more closely targets the practices of the anti -competitive technology industry.
Lowe told Techcrunch last year During a strictlyVC event That the DMA is “not perfect, but at least they punch to understand how to limit the most blatant forms of self-procurement by these large companies”.
Lowe did not immediately respond to the request for comments from Techcrunch.
