A top European Union official on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of using “blackmail” to force the 27-country bloc to weaken regulations affecting U.S. tech companies.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who visited Brussels for trade talks earlier this week, called on the EU to roll back its digital rules in exchange for a reduction of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“They would like to have steel and aluminum as part of this package,” Lutnick told Bloomberg TV on Monday. “And we think it is very, very important that they understand our digital companies and they reconsider their digital regulations to be more inviting to our big companies.”

“Take your foot off the regulatory statement, build those data centers in America and in exchange for that, we’ll come up with a cool steel and aluminum deal,” Lutnick added.

Lutnick also urged the EU to settle its cases against Google and Amazon while noting that the bloc would attract up to $1 trillion in investments if it followed his advice on weakening its digital rules.

“I’m trying to convince them that winning the way Donald Trump is winning in America is the way to go,” Lutnick told Bloomberg.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks at a press conference following a meeting with the EU Trade Ministers' Council in Brussels on Nov. 24, 2025.

Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu via Getty Images

However, Teresa Ribera, the bloc’s antitrust chief, told Politico the U.S. should not dictate the European Union’s digital rulebook.

“It is blackmail,” Ribera told the outlet. This “being their intention does not mean that we accept that kind of blackmail.”

The EU and the U.S. reached a trade deal over the summer, setting a 15% tariff on most goods, but the agreement does not cover steel, aluminum and other derivative products that contain them. The U.S. still has a 50% tariff on the metals.

Lutnick’s criticism seemed to be targeted at the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, which aims to limit the power of large tech companies, and its Digital Services Act, which polices online content.

Last week, the EU unveiled new proposals that would delay the implementation of stricter rules on the use of AI in “high-risk areas” like biometric identification and also soften privacy regulations, prompting criticism from 127 civil groups that called the move “the biggest rollback of digital fundamental rights in EU history,” according to Reuters.

“It is disappointing to see the European Commission cave under the pressure of the Trump administration and Big Tech lobbies,” said a Dutch member of the European Parliament, Kim van Sparrentak, per the news agency.