Trump vows to investigate EU over fining of US tech companies
Donald Trump said the United States would launch an investigation into the European Union and threatened a new tariff over penalties imposed on some of the largest American technology companies.
This comes after the European Commission fined Google €890 million ($1 billion) for operating in a way that squeezes rivals into its services.
In a post on Trump-owned Truth Social, the US president said the EU would pay a “huge price” for how it treated Google and other major US tech companies also being investigated: Apple, Meta and Amazon.
“The United States is not a ‘POWER’ for Europe, and we will not allow it to be!” he wrote.
Trump said any penalties should be “completely repealed” and launched a trade investigation into the EU while considering a “significant tariff.”
He added that the US would “immediately launch a 301 investigation” over allegations that European regulators were “robbing American companies and therefore American taxpayers”.
Chapter 301 Commercial Code 1974, external Authorizes the Office of the United States Trade Representative to respond to and investigate trade practices that are believed to be unfair. Second Trump Administration launched several similar investigations, external since last year.
The tariff threat comes just a day after Trump announced new tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the EU, the UK and China.
Google spokesman José Castañeda told the BBC that the company was “working hard to comply” with the European Digital Markets Act but “expressed our concerns about the impact of recent EC decisions”.
“We appreciate the involvement of the administration and the U.S. government,” Castañeda said. he added.
In addition to the latest fine imposed on Google, Trump claimed in his post that Apple received a $15 billion EU fine, a $3 billion Meta fine, and Amazon a $2.5 billion fine.
Representatives of Meta, Apple and Amazon, as well as the European Commission, were contacted for comment.
He said that shortly before Trump was elected president in 2024, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook called him directly to complain about the fines the company had received from European regulators.
The call came shortly after Apple lost a long-running dispute over unpaid taxes.
