Turkey’s long-running skirmishes with US tech giants could erupt into a bigger clash in 2025, as new signs point to the potential for a larger standoff between Ankara and Washington. 

On March 17, Bloomberg reported that Turkey was preparing to soon submit new digital competition rules to parliament that would prevent players like Apple, Google and Amazon from favoring their own services in search engines and app stores. Crucially, these new regulations, which have been in the works since 2022, are modeled after the EU’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA, which seeks to limit the domination of big tech. 

Enacted in 2023, the DMA is currently fueling tensions with the Trump administration, which on Feb. 21 labeled the rules as “overseas extortion” and threatened to impose tariffs in response. As Ankara mirrors Brussels' approach, Turkey could also soon find itself in the White House’s crosshairs. 

"The Trump administration's recent directive indicates they will likely view any DMA-styled regulations targeting US tech as akin to tariffs, and will respond accordingly,” Kay Jebelli, senior director for Europe with the US tech trade group Chamber of Progress, told Al-Monitor.