The Dutch government has blocked a US-based company from acquiring a key supplier behind the country’s online identity system.
According to Politico Dutch outfit Solvinity runs a platform for the DigiD app. The app lets Dutch citizens authenticate themselves online when booking a doctor’s appointment, buying a house or dealing with public authorities.
In November, US-based Kyndryl announced plans to buy Solvinity. That immediately raised concerns that a vital Dutch identification tool would fall under foreign control and send citizens’ details to the US.
Across Europe, governments have become more twitchy about the bloc’s reliance on US technology. It turns out that outsourcing key digital infrastructure to other people’s giants can get politically awkward.
In a letter to the national parliament published on Tuesday, Digital Economy state secretary Willemijn Aerdts said the national investment screening authority had advised the government to block the deal.
“The purchase was seen as posing a possible risk to the public interest. The government decided to adopt that advice and block the acquisition. The Netherlands attaches great value to the presence of foreign, especially US-based tech companies, and their added value to the Dutch economy and digital infrastructure, but it maintains, at the same time, an independent investment screening framework aimed at protecting the public interest and which applies equally to all investors, independent of their country of origin,” Aerdts said.
The decision comes one week before the European Commission is expected to unveil its tech sovereignty package. That bundle is meant to cut Europe’s reliance on foreign technology in cloud, microchips and AI.
Kyndryl said it was “extremely disappointed” with the decision.
“The politicisation of this process has overshadowed the clear and important benefits this transaction would have brought to Solvinity’s customers and Dutch citizens,” the statement said.
