Trump: upset with EU over tech fines

Trump: upset with EU over tech fines

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly criticized the European Union (EU) for imposing a €2.95 billion fine on Google, accusing the bloc of unfairly targeting American tech companies. The fine, announced on Friday, stems from allegations that Google abused its dominant position in the digital advertising market by favoring its own ad exchange over rival exchanges and limiting access to data for third-party ad services [1, 2, 3].

The EU's antitrust commissioner, Teresa Ribera, stated that Google's practices created an unfair advantage for its own ad technology services, thereby harming online publishers and competitors. Google has indicated that it will appeal the decision, arguing that the fine and required changes would negatively impact thousands of European businesses [2].

Trump, in a post on social media, accused the EU of "effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs." He also mentioned that this fine is part of a series of actions against American tech companies, which he considers discriminatory and unfair. The former president has previously criticized the EU's efforts to rein in Silicon Valley giants [1, 2].

The fine, which totals €2.95 billion, ranks among Brussels' toughest sanctions and is the second highest by the EU against Google for alleged abuses of dominance. It follows a €4.125 billion Android penalty and a €2.42 billion fine for crushing shopping search rivals. A €1.49 billion AdSense levy was annulled last year. The decisions push Google’s EU liabilities to just shy of €10 billion — far outpacing fines against Apple, Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. [2].

The EU's actions come at a tense moment for EU-US trade relations, with Trump repeatedly deriding the bloc's efforts to rein in Silicon Valley giants. Although Google faces antitrust scrutiny worldwide, it won some relief this week when a US judge ruled that its search business would not need to be broken up to address the harms alleged by the Department of Justice. Google’s adtech operations, however, remain under threat in the US [2].

References:
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/05/tech/google-eu-antitrust-fine-adtech
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-05/google-fined-almost-3-billion-by-eu-for-abusing-adtech-power
[3] https://www.ainvest.com/news/eu-fines-google-eur3-billion-adtech-probe-2509/