Trump threatens tariffs on the European Union in response to fines on US tech companies

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to launch a “theft investigation” and impose tariffs on the European Union following its decision yesterday to levy fines on American technology companies.

He noted that “after imposing fines—without any justification—of $15 billion on Apple, $3 billion on Meta, $2.5 billion on Amazon, and many others, we have just learned that Google, a truly advanced and remarkable company, has been fined an additional $1 billion without any explanation.”

He added that “the total fines imposed on Google now exceed $18 billion.”

He pointed out that “these illegal practices, characterized by blatant discrimination at such high levels,” began “during the first year” of his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration, and affirmed that they would not continue under his leadership.

He stressed that “the European Union will pay a heavy price for this behavior, which is entirely illegal and unethical, a warning I have repeatedly issued to them.”

Yesterday, the European Union imposed two fines on Google totaling €890 million ($1 billion), and fined it an additional €460 million ($523.04 million) for allegedly illegally favoring its own services, such as Google Flights for air travel and Google Hotels for accommodations, over competitors in search results.

The European Commission stated that the second fine, amounting to €430 million ($488.93 million), was imposed because Google did not allow app developers to display free offers to consumers outside its digital store, Google Play.

EU Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said, “Following this decision, we want to ensure greater competition and enable other companies to innovate as well.”