President Donald Trump is escalating the fight over European Union antitrust penalties against Apple, Google, and other U.S. tech companies by opening a trade investigation that could lead to new tariffs.
Trump announced the investigation in a social media post after the European Commission fined Google 890 million euros on July 23 for violating the Digital Markets Act.
The fine included 460 million euros, or about $517 million, for favoring Google services in search results and 430 million euros, or about $483 million, for restricting how businesses direct Google Play users to alternative purchasing options.
“The United States of America is not a PIGGYBANK’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be,” Trump wrote. He accused the EU of unfairly taking money from American companies and said its penalties should be reversed.
Trump predicted that the investigation would result in a “substantial tariff” against the EU. He didn’t identify a tariff rate, affected products, or a timetable for completing the investigation.
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the U.S. trade representative to investigate foreign government practices considered unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory and harmful to American commerce. A finding against the EU could support tariffs or other trade restrictions.
The US-based investigation obviously can’t overturn European Commission decisions or erase fines imposed under EU law. Apple and Google must separately challenge those penalties through the European legal system.
The announcement comes three days after 25 Republican lawmakers urged Trump to use Section 301 against the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act.
The lawmakers argued that the rules disproportionately burden American technology companies and give foreign competitors easier access to the U.S. market. European officials maintain that the regulations apply according to companies’ size and market power rather than their nationality.
Trump also threatened to use Section 301 on September 5, 2025, if foreign governments continued imposing fines and regulations that he said discriminated against American technology companies.
Apple is part of the widening US-EU dispute
Although the July 23 Google fine immediately preceded Trump’s announcement, he also named Apple, Meta, Amazon, and other U.S. companies in his criticism of European regulators.
The European Commission fined Apple 500 million euros on April 23, 2025, after finding that its App Store rules restricted developers from directing customers to offers outside Apple’s payment system.
Apple appealed the fine on July 7, 2025, arguing that the Commission’s demands went beyond what the Digital Markets Act requires and dictated how Apple must operate the App Store.
The company has said it spent hundreds of thousands of engineering hours and made dozens of product and policy changes to comply with the law. Apple has also accused the Commission of repeatedly changing its expectations during the compliance process.
European regulators say the anti-steering rules give consumers access to competing offers and prevent gatekeepers from using control of an app store to disadvantage rivals. The Commission has designated services operated by Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and ByteDance as gatekeepers under the DMA.
The disagreement is no longer limited to whether individual App Store or Google Play rules comply with European law. Trump is attempting to treat the EU’s regulatory system itself as a discriminatory trade practice, potentially connecting technology enforcement to tariffs on unrelated European goods.
Tariffs won’t settle the underlying legal fight
Section 301 gives the administration a mechanism to investigate the EU and impose trade penalties if U.S. officials find that European regulations burden American commerce. The investigation marks a meaningful escalation, but it won’t determine whether Apple or Google violated European law.
Tariffs are collected from U.S. importers, which may absorb the cost or pass some of it to businesses and consumers. Any duties covering products outside the technology industry could therefore affect companies that had no role in the EU’s enforcement decisions.
The investigation, reported by The Associated Press, also follows a broader expansion of Section 301 action by the Trump administration. New tariffs on imports from more than 60 countries took effect July 23 over alleged failures to enforce bans on goods produced through forced labor.
For Apple, the investigation adds federal trade pressure to a dispute it is already fighting through European courts. It may raise the political and economic cost of future EU penalties, but only European regulators or judges can withdraw or overturn the existing fine.
