The chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission warned Apple, Alphabet, and other technology companies that efforts to comply with British and European digital content laws could violate U.S. law if they weaken privacy and data security protections for American users.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson on Aug. 21 expressed concerns about the EU Digital Services Act, and the UK Online Safety Act, which are aimed at cracking down on illegal and harmful online content, and the UK Investigatory Powers Act.
“Foreign governments seeking to limit free expression or weaken data security in the United States might count on the fact that companies have an incentive to simplify their operations and legal compliance measures by applying uniform policies across jurisdictions,” Ferguson said.
The letters are part of a broader Trump administration effort to push back on foreign regulatory requirements.
On Tuesday, U.S. officials said Britain had dropped its demand for Apple to provide a “backdoor” that would have enabled access to American citizens’ encrypted data. Earlier in August, Reuters reported that the U.S. had instructed its diplomats in Europe to lobby against the Digital Services Act.
Ferguson called tech giants Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, as well as smaller companies including X, Signal and Slack to meet with him and discuss how they plan to balance U.S. compliance with competing pressures from abroad.
The Attorney General argued that the JUA — being created by the General Assembly — is a public, not private, entity. A federal court finally agreed last December, clearing the way for the transfer of $200 million to the general fund.
“It has been a long road, and I commend our civil litigators for seeing it through to this end result — a monumental victory for Pennsylvanians,” Sunday said.
The impetus for the litigation was legislation passed in 2017 that ordered the transfer of $200 million from JUA to the Commonwealth general fund. The JUA then filed suit against the Governor and Insurance Commissioner, who the Attorney General has represented in the matter.
After years of litigation, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals last December ruled that the JUA is a public agency, not a private entity,
The ruling opened the door for the state to access the JUA’s budget surplus, which actually totals $300 million, and which regulators say is far in excess of what the JUA needs for reserves to cover potential claims. The state maintained it has the right to access the funds for the good of the public. The JUA had successfully thwarted the state’s attempts to access its funds for years