When the European Union issued new rules for the internet earlier this yr, officers in Brussels envisioned a system that might cease US Big Tech from rising uncontrolled. But the bloc’s newest antitrust resolution despatched a message that it’s not solely American tech giants that can be topic to rising scrutiny, however European tech firms too.

Today an acquisition by journey firm Booking has been blocked by EU regulators, who cited considerations that the deal might hurt competitors and drive up costs. Booking Holdings, whose largest subsidiary is the Amsterdam-based on-line journey agent Booking.com, was prohibited from shopping for Swedish peer Etraveli. Booking’s chief government hit again on the European Commission’s resolution, claiming it was “wrong” about each the regulation and the main points of the case.

“The European Commission’s decision not only departs from settled law and precedent but it deprives consumers of travel options that they are entitled to have,” mentioned Booking’s government, Glenn Fogel, in a statement. Booking initially introduced its intention to amass Etraveli, a flight reserving firm, in 2021.

This is the primary tech deal to be blocked for the reason that European Union launched new competitors guidelines for the sector. The Digital Markets Act technically doesn’t make it more durable for mergers or acquisitions to be authorised. But for some analysts, the choice affecting Booking.com—one among Europe’s largest know-how firms by market cap—demonstrates the EU’s intention to sign that its personal tech giants additionally need to abide by the brand new Big Tech rulebook.

“When the DMA was discussed last year, a lot of people said this is a very narrowly tailored piece of legislation which really seeks to kneecap the large US tech companies,” says Nicolas Petit, regulation professor and antitrust professional on the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. “It’s a big bonus for the European Commission to have a case like this because it kills once and for all the feeling that the DMA works to target US companies and exempt European companies like Booking.”

The fee doesn’t usually block tech mergers. In May, the bloc approved Microsoft’s acquisition of online game firm Activision Blizzard. But the choice to dam the €1.63 billion ($1.73 billion) Booking.com deal arrives two weeks after the EU revealed its record of gatekeeper firms that must adjust to strict new antitrust guidelines or face fines of up 20 % of their world annual turnover beneath the brand new digital markets act (DMA).

Booking.com was conspicuously absent from that record. To qualify as a gatekeeper, firms want an annual turnover of greater than €7.5 billion ($7.9 billion) and have greater than 45 million lively customers based mostly within the EU. Out of the six gatekeeper firms, all had been American—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft—apart from ByteDance, which is headquartered in Beijing. The firm said in July it didn’t characteristic as a result of adverse influence of the pandemic on its enterprise.

For years, European leaders have campaigned for insurance policies to assist the EU develop its personal tech giants, able to competing with exports from Silicon Valley. French President Emmanuel Macron had set the goal of 10 EU tech giants valued at $100 billion by 2030. The chief government of Booking, which is valued at $109 billion, has beforehand warned against regulation that would hamper progress of Europe’s few success tales within the sector.