Marketplace Morning Report Europe looks to step back from U.S. Big Tech
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Mar 16, 2026 Elizabeth Hudson, a BBC reporter covering European digital sovereignty moves. Kimberly Adams, a Marketplace correspondent on consumer finance and housing. They discuss Europe shifting away from U.S. tech with open-source alternatives and institutional changes. They also cover how buy now, pay later is being used by new homeowners and the risks that brings.
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Europe Sees U.S. Tech Dependence As Geopolitical Risk
- Europe is treating reliance on U.S. cloud and comms platforms as a geopolitical vulnerability.
- Governments and institutions are shifting to open-source alternatives like Pekona and French Vizio to avoid a potential U.S. 'kill switch' scenario.
France Switches Government Employees To Vizio
- France announced it will roll out Vizio, a 100% French open-source video conferencing tool, to all government employees.
- The move followed senior politician David Amiel's announcement and aims to replace Zoom for official communications.
Keep Open Source To Maintain Access If Providers Exit
- Preserve choice by adopting open-source stacks so institutions can self-host if commercial providers are cut off.
- Pekona's model lets organizations keep software access even if a U.S. company must withdraw services.