Trump threatens commerce probe after ‘discriminatory’ EU fines in opposition to Google, Apple


US President Donald Trump throughout a dinner with tech leaders within the State Eating Room of the White Home in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025.

Will Oliver | Bloomberg | Getty Photos

President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to launch a commerce investigation to “nullify” what he stated have been discriminatory fines being levied by Europe in opposition to U.S. tech corporations reminiscent of Google and Apple.

“We can not let this occur to good and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I might be compelled to start out a Part 301 continuing to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to those Taxpaying American Firms,” Trump wrote on Fact Social.

He issued the menace hours after Google caught an almost $3.5 billion penalty from the European Union in a significant antitrust case centered on the search big’s promoting expertise enterprise.

The president complained that Europe was “successfully taking cash that will in any other case go to American Investments and Jobs.”

“That is on prime of the various different Fines and Taxes which have been issued in opposition to Google and different American Tech Firms, specifically,” Trump wrote. “Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer is not going to stand for it!”

He additionally known as out the EU for squeezing billions of {dollars} from Apple in again taxes and fines for alleged anticompetitive practices.

The submit claimed that Apple has been fined $17 billion, however that determine seems to incorporate a 2024 courtroom ruling ordering the corporate to pay over $14 billion in again taxes.

Apple “ought to get their a refund!” Trump wrote.

That is breaking information. Please refresh for updates.