Trump vows to investigate EU over fining of US tech companies


Former President Donald Trump has announced a trade investigation into the European Union and threatened a fresh tariff following EU fines against major American tech companies.


The post on Trump’s own Truth Social platform follows the EU Commission’s €890 million fine on Google, citing a strategy that squeezed out rivals from its services. Trump said the United States will not allow the EU to view American capitalism as a reservoir and called for these fines to be “entirely reversed.”


“The United States of America is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” the former president wrote, adding that the U.S. would immediately initiate a Section 301 investigation over what he described as European regulators “robbing American companies.”


That investigation would allow the Office of the United States Trade Representative to take action against trade practices deemed unfair under the Trade Act of 1974. The Trump Administration has already launched several such probes in the past year.


The tariff threat comes just 24 hours after Trump announced new tariffs on 60 trading partners—including the EU, the UK and China—ranging from 10% to 12.5%.


Representatives of the companies named in the post—Apple, Meta and Amazon—along with the European Commission, have been contacted for comment. Google’s spokesman, José Castañeda, told the BBC that the company had “worked hard to comply” with Europe’s Digital Markets Act but “expressed concerns about the impact of recent EC decisions.”


The ex‑president highlighted alleged EU fines of $15 billion for Apple, $3 billion for Meta, and $2.5 billion for Amazon, although the EU’s records indicate slightly different amounts. Officials from the relevant tech firms and the European Commission have yet to provide formal responses.


This development adds a new dimension to the ongoing friction between Washington and Brussels over digital competition policy, as the U.S. seeks to challenge what it sees as punitive measures against American tech giants.