Trump threatens EU with steep tariffs and a new trade investigation, saying the bloc “will pay a very big price” after Brussels fined Google $1bn over antitrust violations, according to Al Jazeera. President Donald Trump made the remarks on Friday, calling penalties against Google and other US tech firms “highly unethical” and saying the United States “is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe.”
In a social media post, Trump said the practice of fining American technology companies began during the first year of the Biden administration but would not continue under his presidency, Al Jazeera reported. His comments followed a decision by the European Commission on Thursday, which found that Google had breached the bloc’s Digital Markets Act by favouring its own services in search results and restricting app developers from directing users elsewhere.
Regulators said Google gave preferential placement to its own shopping, travel and other services over rival offerings, and prevented app developers from steering customers towards deals available outside its Play Store, according to Al Jazeera. The Commission split the penalty roughly evenly between the two breaches and gave Google 60 days to change its practices or face periodic fines of up to 5 percent of its average daily turnover.
Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice president overseeing competition policy, described the action as “decisive yet balanced” on Thursday, arguing that products should succeed on merit rather than ownership, Al Jazeera reported. Google executive Kent Walker characterised the ruling as “product degradation” driven by a small number of complainants, and said regulation should improve products rather than weaken them.
The penalty adds renewed strain to US-EU relations at a time when trade tensions between Washington and Brussels had appeared to ease, according to Al Jazeera. The European Union has fined Google repeatedly since 2017, including a $4.5bn penalty over its Android operating system that was upheld on appeal this month, and a $3.4bn fine last year targeting its advertising business.
Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, warned this week that the European Union’s approach toward American technology firms risks unravelling a trade deal struck in Turnberry, Scotland, last year that capped US tariffs on European goods, Al Jazeera reported. EU officials have pushed back against the pressure, saying they answer to their own laws rather than outside influence.
Trump has threatened to launch a probe under Section 301, a US trade tool used to investigate unfair trade practices, though Al Jazeera reported that such a process could take months to produce results. Tariffs, however, could follow far sooner than a formal investigation. The full ruling and enforcement details are available through the European Commission.
The dispute also highlights the wider regulatory tensions between the European Union and major US technology companies. EU officials have argued that the Digital Markets Act is designed to create fairer competition and prevent dominant platforms from using their market power to disadvantage smaller rivals. The Trump administration, however, has increasingly criticised European regulatory actions against American companies, raising concerns that technology disputes could spill over into broader trade relations. For Google, the latest penalty adds to a long list of regulatory challenges in Europe, while for the EU, the case represents another test of its ability to enforce digital competition rules against some of the world’s largest technology firms.
The latest dispute follows the Commission’s decision to fine Google €890m over separate app and Play Store practices, part of a broader pattern of EU scrutiny of dominant US technology platforms in recent years. Whether Trump threatens EU with further tariffs and a trade probe going forward will depend on how negotiations between Washington and Brussels develop in the coming weeks, according to Al Jazeera.
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