TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened he would reignite trade war with the European Union after an American tech giant was penalized with billions of dollars of fine in an antitrust case.
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Trump in his social media post warned he would open an investigation that could lead to new tariffs against the EU’s “discriminatory” penalties on U.S. companies. “As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” he wrote. “We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies.”
In another post on his platform Truth Social, Trump noted U.S. tech companies including Google had already paid sizable penalties and taxes to the EU, which is unfair and unacceptable for the United States.
“This is on top of the many other Fines and Taxes that have been issued against Google and other American Tech Companies, in particular,”Trump posted. “Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it! As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand.”
Trump followed up a post pointing out Google has paid previously $13 billion “in false claims and charges for a total of $16.5 Billion Dollar.” “The European Union must stop this practice against American Companies, IMMEDIATELY!” he added.
Trump later Friday further lashed out over the EU’s penalties charged to U.S. companies. “It’s become a source of income. And many other companies too. Mostly tech companies, but we can’t let that happen,” Trump said at the White House. “I’ve gone to lawyers, and I’ve asked them, ‘What do you think?’ They said, ‘They didn’t do anything wrong.’ You can’t do that, it’s not fair.”
Trump issued his warning hours after the EU announced it had fined Google €2.95 billion for for breaching EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology (adtech) industry. Google’s abusive practices were taken in a way of favoring its own online display adtech services to to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers, according to the commission in a statement.
The European Commission has ordered Google to bring these self-preferencing practices to an end; and to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. Google has 60 days to inform the commission about how it intends to do so.
This is not the first European Commission decision finding that Google has abused its dominant position in different digital markets to the detriment of European consumers, and the commission increased Google's fine since this is the third time Google breaks the rules of the game, said Teresa Ribera, the comission’s Executive Vice President and the competition chief. “Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies,” she said.
While the European Commission said a recent U.S. federal court’s ruling closely mirrored those addressed, a U.S. judge earlier this week ruled against drastic penalties, allowing the company to retain its Chrome web browser and Android operating system.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in his rulings on Tuesday said Google would not have to sell its Chrome web browser, rejecting the government’s most-stringent demand including a forced spinoff of Chrome and the Android operating system. The judge said he wouldn’t force sweeping changes at Google because the market had changed significantly since the Justice Department sued in 2020.
During a dinner with Trump on Thursday, Google CEO Sundra Pichai told the president h appreciated the administration “had a constructive dialogue”. Trump on Friday said several executives at the dinner complained to him about the taxes they are facing from the European Union, among other countries. “It’s just not fair. We don’t want that to happen to our companies,” he said.
Google vowed to appeal right after the EU’s fine announced. The bloc’s move “imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money.” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president for regulatory affairs at Google.
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