EU Targets App Stores Over China's DeepSeek AI Model

Germany’s regulatory action against China’s DeepSeek AI marks a key test of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which assigns enforcement responsibility to major platforms like Apple and Google rather than app developers.

The DSA classifies these platforms as “gatekeepers”, mandating that they remove illegal content upon notification—or face fines of up to 6% of their global annual revenue. This strategy reflects the practical difficulty of directly enforcing laws against Chinese firms operating in the EU, particularly when China’s data privacy laws (PIPL, CSL, DSL) allow state access to user data, conflicting with Europe’s rights-based digital governance.

Key Highlights

• Germany uses EU’s DSA to hold Apple and Google accountable for DeepSeek’s presence.
• DeepSeek’s Chinese data practices conflict with EU’s privacy framework.
• Open-source architecture challenges traditional enforcement mechanisms.

German regulators cited DeepSeek’s lack of enforceable user rights under Chinese law as a key concern.

DeepSeek’s R1 model, launched in January 2025, has gained over 10 million users by offering competitive AI performance at one-tenth the cost of Western rivals. Its open-source model complicates enforcement since alternative deployments can emerge outside official app stores. This mirrors past challenges in regulating decentralized tech ecosystems.

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The case signals how AI privacy regulations are becoming tools for market influence, shaping data flow, platform access, and user protection standards. DeepSeek’s rapid ascent and community-driven innovation underscore the growing challenge regulators face in keeping pace with global AI development, especially where open-source architectures are concerned.