On July 4, as most people were celebrating our independence with fireworks and barbecue, Europe was quietly plotting to establish more control over American tech companies. That day, the European Union quietly released a proposed addendum to bolster its data privacy regulation.

The addendum comes after Ireland slapped Meta with a record-breaking $1.3 billion fine under the General Data Protection Regulation . It seems European regulators want GDPR enforcement to be even heftier — and costlier.

With this recent push to accelerate extraterritorial enforcement, the EU is clearly attempting to further target and harm American businesses. Amid global competition for rapid technological innovation, the United States must leverage trade negotiations to break Europe’s harmful protectionism.

Implemented in 2018, the GDPR is the European Union’s broad-based regulatory framework governing the collection and processing of personal data. While ostensibly designed to protect the privacy rights of European citizens, the GDPR applies not only to organizations within the EU but also to entities outside the EU that process the personal data of EU citizens. By encompassing entities operating outside the EU, the GDPR aims to ensure consistent and high-level data protection standards for EU citizens, irrespective of the geographical location of the organizations handling their personal data. In reality, by subjecting these companies to heavy penalties and compliance burdens, the EU has effectively extended its jurisdiction beyond its borders.

Over the past five years, the GDPR has thus become a cudgel consistently wielded by European regulators to browbeat American tech companies. Of the 10 largest fines levied under the GDPR, nine have targeted tech companies based in the United States. While the EU claims that streamlining GDPR enforcement is necessary to ensure compliance and protect consumers, the timing and focus of these efforts is alarming. With many American tech giants at the forefront of digital innovation and competition, the EU's accelerated enforcement appears to be aimed at harming American businesses and weakening their market position.

In fact, GDPR is one of the main reasons that Europe has fallen behind the U.S. when it comes to technological innovation. Approximately one-third of applications and tech companies have left the EU, and the number of new tech products being offered in Europe has halved following GDPR's implementation.

Now, the European Union is preparing to supersize its protectionism by expediting extraterritorial enforcement of the GDPR, making it easier and faster to impose sanctions and fines on countries outside the EU. The most likely outcome is that American companies will be targeted with more extreme enforcement from foreign regulators. This addendum, together with other new European regulations such as the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and AI Act, will allow the European Union to continue impairing American tech companies.

To foster a global digital economy, it is essential that regulations such as the GDPR are enforced in a fair and balanced manner. While the EU has the right to protect its citizens' privacy, it should not single out American companies for stringent scrutiny. The recent move by the EU to speed up enforcement of GDPR further exacerbates worries about targeted efforts against American businesses.

To maintain a healthy global digital economy, the United States should leverage its position as an essential trading partner with the EU to ensure American companies are not unfairly targeted by European regulators.

Luke Hogg is the director of outreach at the Foundation for American Innovation, where his work focuses on the intersection of emerging technologies and public policy. You can follow him on Twitter at @LEHogg.