Tensions between the second Trump administration and the European Union have escalated sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to launch a formal trade investigation into Brussels and threatened steep new tariffs over a series of antitrust penalties imposed on major American technology firms.
The announcement comes just days after the European Commission levied an €890 million ($1 billion) fine on Alphabet Inc.’s Google, finding that the company had abused its market position to lock out competing digital services. This is not the first case of European regulators targeting large U.S. tech players: Trump claims that Apple has received $15 billion in fines, Meta has been ordered to pay $3 billion, and Amazon faces $2.5 billion in penalties, all from EU enforcement bodies.
In a post on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump, the president lashed out at the EU’s regulatory actions, arguing that the bloc has systematically targeted American companies for unfair financial punishment. “The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” he wrote. Trump demanded that all existing fines against the four U.S. tech giants be “entirely reversed”, confirming that he would immediately initiate a Section 301 investigation into what he called European regulators’ practice of “robbing American companies and, in turn, the American taxpayer”.
Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 grants the Office of the United States Trade Representative broad authority to investigate and respond to unfair foreign trade practices. This marks the latest in a string of such probes launched by the second Trump administration since it took office last year. The new tariff threat comes only 24 hours after Trump unveiled a fresh round of tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 major trading partners, including the EU, the United Kingdom and China.
Google spokesman José Castañeda told the BBC that the company has worked diligently to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the landmark regulatory framework governing large digital platforms, but has raised repeated concerns about the economic and competitive impact of recent European Commission decisions. “We appreciate the engagement by the administration and US government,” Castañeda added.
As of publication, representatives for Apple, Meta, Amazon and the European Commission have not issued public responses to Trump’s statements, after multiple requests for comment were sent. This dispute is not without precedent: shortly before Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Apple CEO Tim Cook personally called Trump to complain about EU penalties against the company, coming on the heels of a years-long legal battle over Apple’s unpaid tax obligations in Europe. Trump has a long history of clashing with European regulators over trade and regulatory policy, dating back to his first term in office.