President Donald Trump blasted the European Union on Friday, September 9 after regulators fined US tech giant Google nearly $3.5 billion for breaking competition laws. Trump called the move “unfair” and warned of retaliatory tariffs if the penalty is not withdrawn. Sharing a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Europe today “hit” another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.” “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,” he continued.Trump’s remarks comes days after he hosted a high profile dinner at White House with tech CEOs that included also included Google CEO Sundar Pichai. At the dinner, Trump congratulated Pichai on Google’s recent legal triumph. The exchange followed a landmark antitrust ruling that saw Google avoid a court-ordered breakup.“Well you had a very good day yesterday,” Trump said to Pichai, “Google had a very good day yesterday. Do you want to talk about that big day you had yesterday?”
Why EU fined Google
According to a New York Times report, the European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation bloc, accused Google of breaching antitrust laws by using its size and dominance to control the display advertising business, undercutting rivals. It said that Google had abused its dominance that indirectly hurt rival providers of advertising technology. Google’s control over the ad-tech supply chain allows it to see pricing information that rivals cannot access, the regulators accused.
What Trump said about EU’s fine on Google
In the Truth Social post, Trump said:Europe today “hit” another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, 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. 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. Apple, as an example, was forced to pay $17 Billion Dollars in a Fine that, in my opinion, should not have been charged — They should get their money back! 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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA