Trump Escalates Fight with Europe: Tariff Threats Follow Google Penalty
Washington (The Uttam Hindu): US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose more tariffs on the European Union (EU). This statement came when the European Union imposed a fine of 2.95 billion euros (about 3.47 billion dollars) on Google. This fine has been imposed on Google for violating monopoly laws.
"Europe today fined another great American company, Google, $3.5 billion. This money could have actually been spent on investment and jobs in the US. But now that has been taken away. This is very wrong and the American people will not tolerate this," Trump said on his Truth social platform on Friday, shortly after the EU's decision.
The US President said, "As I have said before, my government will not tolerate such discriminatory actions. If Europe continues to impose such unfair fines on American companies, I will be forced to initiate action under 'Section 301' to stop these fines."
The European Union on Friday announced a fine of about $3.5 billion on Google. This action was taken because Google has abused its market dominance by giving an advantage to its advertising platform over other companies.
The EU also ordered Google to stop these practices. This is the fourth time Brussels has fined a company billions of euros for violating competition rules.
“Today’s ruling makes clear that Google has abused its dominant position in the ad technology space to the detriment of publishers, advertisers and consumers,” Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s chief competition regulator, said in a statement.
Google has decided to appeal the decision. The issue of enforcing digital rules has frequently come up during trade talks between the EU and the Trump administration.
The European Union announced on Friday that Google will have to pay a 2.95 billion euro (about $3.45 billion) fine for violating competition rules in its profitable advertising business. This is the fourth major fine imposed on Google in the last ten years for EU competition rules.
Trump said, "Google has already paid $13 billion in false charges and fines so far, and the total amount so far has reached $16.5 billion." Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, "How wrong is this! The European Union should immediately stop such actions against American companies."
The US investigation could be a major setback for the EU, as it forged a tough but controversial trade deal with the US this summer.
Although the EU's 27 member states voted in favour of the deal, many European leaders have criticised it and a long-term trade deal with the US is still not finalised.