Trump Threatened the European Union with New Tariffs Over Google's Billion-Dollar Fine

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose new tariffs on European goods in response to European Union fines against American companies, including, for example, a $1 billion (€890 million) fine that the EU imposed this week on Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet.

“The European Union is at it again and, as usual, has set its sights on GREAT American companies!” Trump wrote on July 24 on Truth Social. In the post, he mentioned the $15 billion fine that EU authorities imposed on Apple—“for no reason at all,” the U.S. president said—as well as a $3 billion fine for Meta and a $2.5 billion fine for Amazon. “We have just been informed that Google—a cutting-edge and remarkable company—has been fined another $1 billion without any explanation,” Trump added, emphasizing that this brings “the total amount of fines for Google [in the EU] to over $18 billion.” He called this situation an “illegal and extremely discriminatory practice” against American companies.

"The United States is not a 'piggy bank' for Europe," Trump declared. Washington, he said, will “immediately launch an investigation” into EU fines imposed on major American companies under the “extortion” clause. “The European Union will pay a very high price for this illegal and highly unethical behavior, about which I have warned them repeatedly,” the U.S. president wrote. “The fines [imposed on American companies in the EU] will be completely rescinded,” he added, “and, as we expect, a significant TARIFF will be imposed on them [the EU] as soon as possible,” the American leader threatened.

Google was fined $1 billion last week for antitrust violations related to its search engine. The European Commission stated that the company gives its own services an anti-competitive advantage online by unfairly prioritizing its search results and preventing app developers from redirecting users to resources outside of its Play Store.

Previously, under the EU Digital Markets Act—a piece of legislation that establishes a strict framework to curb the dominance of the largest technology companies—the European Commission had also imposed fines of €500 million and €200 million on Apple and Meta Platforms, respectively.

This article is being updated

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