Hello there. It's great to be with you again. This is the MLEX podcast covering the top

stories in regulatory affairs with the assistance of our team of reporters around the globe. My name is James Panicki.

I'm a senior editor here at NMLEX. Now, as our readers would already know, the Digital Markets Act,

which is the EU's legislation to tackle the powers of Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft,

has appeared in the EU's official journal.

What does that mean? Well, it means that it is now LAW law. There is no turning back.

Within a few weeks from now, the new rules will come into force.

That's big news around the world, and perhaps nowhere more so than in Silicon Valley,

with Big Tech repeatedly finding itself on the

receiving end of EU enforcement. It's in this context that the European Commission has appointed

an envoy to the US-based tech industry, an envoy to be based in San Francisco. But the man

sent to do the job, Herod de Harff, is adamant that he's not in town

to get big tech in a headlock. His role will be essentially diplomatic. Our senior correspondent

Michael Lacton, who is based in San Francisco, sat down with the new envoy and wrote up a story

based on that interview. And Mike joins me now.

So firstly, tell me something about this new envoy.

Who is he?

So de Rafe is a 30-year veteran of the European Commission lifelong official in the EU.

He has a very storied record as a regulator, but most recently he was a senior official in DGConnect, which is the EU. He has a very storied record as a regulator, but most recently he was a senior

official in DG Connect, which is the EU's digital department, which placed him right at the heart

of these twin landmark legislative packages, the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services

Act, which are going to really fundamentally change the sort of landscape

...