There’s no question that the proposed link tax seeks to insulate European publishers from the disruptive impact of the U.S. technology sector. Indeed, in a recent proceeding before the U.S. Trade Representative, a news publisher representative even acknowledged the proposal aimed to provide a “higher level of protection for news publishers in the European Union,” despite insisting that the new regulations “were not trade barriers.”
Source: Sticking Points in Transatlantic Digital Trade, Part II