The European Union may retaliate with new taxes on American technology giants such as Google and Meta if trade negotiations fail with President Trump, said a senior EU official.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the powerful European Commission, issued a warning after Trump on Wednesday approved a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs against the EU and countries other than China-to negotiate trade agreements.
“We are developing vengeful measures,” Von Der Leyen said in an interview for Thursday Financial Times. “There is a wide range of countermeasures … in case negotiations are not satisfactory.”
One option is to “impose a tax on income from digital service advertising,” she added.
Google and Meta each extracts most of their income from digital advertising.
Von der Leyen said large technology firms can be aimed at using the EU instrument of anti-C-Kotity, which is freely based on the US trade act in 1974 and has never been used. Making this would require a 27 -member Block Voting that would give the European Commission extensive powers to limit the US trade on the continent.
Trump has imposed a 10% tax on all EU exports to the USA there is also a 25% fee for imported cars and car parts, as well as in steel and aluminum.
The EC chief described the current state of the game as a “full point of inflation in global trade”.
“It’s a turning point with the United States without any questions,” she told FT. “We will never go back to the status quo.”
As the post reported exclusively earlier this week, the EU is already expected to continue with major fines against Google and Apple for violating its digital market act – a comprehensive digital competition law that strikes restrictions on the ports of the Internet.
Senior EU officials said they see continued penalties and talks on trade tariffs as “two completely separate processes” and will not shorten any special agreements with the US in technology.
Fines can be announced immediately this week or next week.
The fines against Meta can extend beyond $ 1 billion, sources said. The size of a possible fine against Apple cannot be learned immediately.
Six of the seven DMA -covered firms are American.
Mark Zuckerberg and Meta and Trump himself have publicly criticized EU law – with the president referring to it as “extortion overseas”.
Trump has warned that any additional EU efforts to target the American technology industry will result in heavy revenge.
The Brussels-based European Commission has the sole authority for EU trade and antitrust policy and has the power to fine technology companies up to 10% of their global circulation for DMA mismatch.
However, the initial penalties under the law, which came into force in 2023, are not expected to reach the high.
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