Trump threatens industry probe next ‘discriminatory’ EU fines in opposition to Google, Apple

President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to initiation a industry investigation to “nullify” what he stated had been discriminatory fines being levied by way of Europe in opposition to U.S. tech corporations corresponding to Google and Apple.

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He issued the warning hours next Google stuck a just about $3.5 billion penalty from the Ecu Union in a big antitrust case focused at the seek vast’s promoting generation industry.

The put up additionally got here the pace next Trump hosted a dinner on the White Area with a group of govern tech executives, who took turns praising the president.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai thanked Trump next a U.S. pass judgement on issued a good ruling within the landmark antitrust case in opposition to Alphabet. Pichai stated he favored the management’s “constructive dialogue.”

The president complained in his social media put up that Europe was once “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.”

“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 wrote. “Very unfair, and the American Taxpayer will not stand for it!”

In a follow-up post Friday afternoon, Trump claimed that Google has in the past paid $13 billion in “false claims and charges.”

It was once hazy the place that determine got here from, despite the fact that the corporate has just lately confronted a sequence of hefty regulatory fines.

He also known as out the EU for squeezing billions of greenbacks from Apple in again taxes and fines for alleged anticompetitive practices.

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

Apple “should get their money back!” Trump wrote.