Donald Trump has launched a trade investigation into the European Union and threatened a “substantial TARIFF”, days after the European Commission fined Google €890m ($1bn) for squeezing out competitors.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the EU would pay a “very big price” over its treatment of Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon, calling the penalties a “robbery” of American companies and taxpayers. “The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” he wrote.
“Trump threatens tariffs and trade investigation after EU fines Google €890m and claims Apple, Meta, Amazon penalties.”
Trump claimed Apple had received EU fines of $15bn, Meta $3bn and Amazon $2.5bn. He demanded the levies be “entirely reversed” and said he was initiating a Section 301 investigation – a Trade Act power allowing the US to react to unfair trade practices. The second Trump administration has launched several such probes since last year.
The tariff threat came just a day after Trump announced new tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including the EU, UK and China.
Google spokesman José Castañeda told the BBC the company had “worked hard to comply” with Europe’s Digital Markets Act but “expressed our concerns about the impact of recent EC decisions”. He added: “We appreciate the engagement by the administration and US government.”
Representatives of Meta, Apple and Amazon, as well as the European Commission, have been contacted for comment.
Shortly before Trump’s election in 2024, he said Apple chief executive Tim Cook had called him to complain about EU fines – not long after Apple lost a long-running dispute over unpaid taxes. The latest confrontation raises the stakes in an escalating trade war, with the EU now braced for further US action.