Trump threatens EU tariffs over tech fines

Donald Trump said his administration will open a trade investigation into the European Union after regulators fined Google about ? billion, escalating a regulatory dispute between Brussels and Silicon Valley into a potential tariff fight.

In a Truth Social post, Trump accused the EU of unfairly targeting American technology companies and said the US would immediately launch a Section 301 investigation into what he called discriminatory treatment of US businesses. He said the bloc would “pay a very big price” and criticized earlier penalties against Apple, Meta, and Amazon.

The European Commission fined Google €890 million (about ? billion) after finding that the company violated the Digital Markets Act by steering users of Google Search and Google Play toward its own services over rivals. Teresa Ribera, the commission’s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition, said the best products should succeed because they are better, not because they are owned by the company running the search engine.

The dispute follows prior EU Digital Markets Act penalties in 2025, when Apple was fined €500 million and Meta was fined €200 million over competition-rule breaches. The White House and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.