Meta warned the Government that the “operating environment” for tech companies in the European Union is “unsustainable” and called for “urgent action” by Ireland, newly released records show.
The tech giant’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan made the remarks in a recent letter to Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.
Mr Kaplan, a prominent US Republican, took up his new role at Meta in January, replacing former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and directly employs about 2,000 people in Ireland as well as contractors.
Mr Kaplan’s letter came before Donald Trump’s announcement of tariffs on EU goods and the US president’s later easing of the measures.
On Friday European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen did not rule out a levy on the digital advertising revenues of tech multinationals if negotiations to suspend US tariffs fail.
Meta did not comment on the possibility of an EU levy on advertising revenues when contacted by The Irish Times.
Mr Kaplan, who served as White House deputy chief of staff during the George W Bush administration, wrote to Mr Donohoe on February 18th, congratulating him on his recent reappointment as Minister for Finance.
He said Meta is proud of its investments in Ireland and “the work our teams in our international headquarters carry out to support our operations globally”.
Mr Kaplan added: “As you will be aware, the current operating environment for companies like ours in the EU is unsustainable.”
He said that certain commitments in the programme for government in Ireland “are positive from our perspective”.
“However, I’d like to emphasize – as Nick has done in the past – the need for urgent action by Ireland at a national and European level to address the challenges we face collectively,” Mr Kaplan continued.
He said he said he would “welcome the opportunity” to meet Mr Donohoe.
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In response to queries from The Irish Times, Meta highlighted instances where senior executives, including Mr Kaplan, have previously spoken about regulation in the EU.
During an interview published on Meta’s website on February 7th, Mr Kaplan predicted that Mr Trump would be a “staunch defender of US tech companies”.
He mentioned that Mr Trump views EU regulations as “a tariff basically on tech companies” and confirmed that Meta also sees them as “a tax or a tariff”.
Mr Kaplan added: “what we’ve seen over the last 20 years is that America innovates, China duplicates and Europe regulates and in a lot of ways that’s manifested itself in very targeted regulations at US tech companies”.
He argued that “European regulators have sort of measured success based on the number and size of the fines that they’ve been able to assess again US tech companies”.
Meta has previously raised issues surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and EU regulations and delays for Meta AI products in Europe.
Other records released under the Freedom of Information Act include a note of a meeting between Mr Clegg, Mr Harris and then minister for public expenditure Mr Donohoe in December.
The note from the Department of the Taoiseach states Mr Clegg “gave an overview of a range of issues arising for Meta in the EU, in particular the impact of regulation on roll-out of AI products (affecting all generative AI products)”.
Mr Harris and Mr Donohoe are said to have “outlined the importance placed on Meta’s investment in Ireland and acknowledged the concerns raised.
“They emphasised that many of the issues raised are consistent with the recommendations of the Draghi report on EU competitiveness”.
The Department of the Taoiseach has previously said the report by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi “highlights a significant opportunity for the EU to lead in the next wave of innovation, in AI and other advanced technologies”.
