Toppøkonom advarer: – Europa er en digital koloni

Italian economist Cristina Caffarra has been working on European competition economics for over 25 years, with a particular focus on tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. She believes these companies view European competition authorities as "true losers" who cannot handle Brussels. Since 2018, Google, Apple, and Meta have been hit with billions of euro fines, but nothing has changed.

Caffarra argues that Europe has been trying to regulate "big tech" for 20 years, but it has been a "colossal failure." While Europe has been busy taming tech giants, these same companies have "wrapped" the continent with cloud services, data systems, and other technological infrastructure. "Reality is that we are now in a situation of a very serious, systemic, and strategic dependence on infrastructure we don't control, but which belongs to others," she says, adding that Europe is a "digital colony."

She points to a 2025 study, which estimates that Europe creates $260 billion for the US annually through the purchase of American cloud and software services. If even 100 billion euros could have been retained, it would be a massive boost to the European tech industry. Another study shows that Norway is the European country most dependent on American technology, largely due to Microsoft's dominance in the region.

Caffarra emphasizes that Europe must "turn" and diversify. With AI technology, the continent has a new chance, but also a new opportunity to repeat the same mistakes. She believes that while European companies may succeed in developing good apps, they will still be dependent on infrastructure provided by Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Caffarra believes the problem is not a lack of smart minds or good technology, but scaling companies and getting European customers to choose them. She warns that Europe has already given up on competing with big tech in the US and that today's youth must revolt against the legacy they inherited. The solution, she says, lies in diversification, particularly in the public sector, where splitting up bids can allow local Norwegian companies to compete with the big players and not depend on American technology for everything.