Europe may have failed to produce homegrown rivals to America’s leading technology companies, but it has become exceptionally proficient at punishing American success. Fortunately, President Donald Trump is prepared to defend it.
Following the European Union’s latest $1 billion fine against Google – which brings the company’s cumulative European penalties to more than $10 billion – Trump announced July 24 on social media that his administration would initiate a Section 301 investigation into the EU’s practice of “ 'ROBBING' American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer.”
The president is right. The fine on Google is only the latest salvo in Europe’s sustained assault on America’s most successful and innovative companies. This financial
attack is weakly defended by Brussels as an exercise in “sovereignty.”
As I warned in April, a Section 301 investigation is long overdue.
European regulators have taxed, fined, investigated and restricted American companies while attempting to dictate how they operate and what speech they may permit. Brussels apparently assumed Washington would never respond in kind.
EU taxes are designed to penalize American companies
A June 2025 report from Public Policy Solutions documented the scale of this discrimination. Since 2018, American-owned companies have absorbed 83% of all penalties imposed under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.
Europe has also enacted digital services taxes crafted to penalize American companies while largely sparing European competitors. France was unusually candid, calling its levy the “GAFA tax” – for Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. France, Italy and Spain collected more than $1.2 billion from American companies in 2022 and 2023 alone.
The first Trump administration investigated these taxes under Section 301 and found them discriminatory. The Biden administration then suspended the resulting tariffs, emboldening Europe to become even more aggressive.
Through the Digital Services Act, Brussels has appointed itself an international arbiter of permissible speech, exerting enormous influence over what content American platforms must restrict or remove.
The Digital Markets Act, the DMA, is even more blatantly discriminatory. It imposes special rules on companies designated as “gatekeepers.” Six of the seven are American; not one is European. Every company formally investigated under the law has been American.
The European Commission has used the DMA to force Google to remove useful search features, require Meta to overhaul its advertising model and pressure Apple to relinquish control over portions of its App Store.
The commission now wants to subject Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to similar restrictions – even though neither met the law’s ordinary thresholds when the investigation began.
US companies are 'feeling the pain.' Europe has made it clear that's the point.
A growing chorus is demanding a forceful American response. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently said the United States cannot “let Europe control the global regulation of our companies.” And 25 Republican lawmakers subsequently urged Trump to confront Europe’s “economic extraction and regulatory coercion against American firms.”
Meanwhile, Brussels is doubling down. The commission recently awarded a 180 euro million cloud contract (more than $210 million) to purportedly sovereign providers and unveiled a broader "Tech Sovereignty" package intended to reduce dependence on foreign technology.
In this context, “foreign” plainly means American.
Only four of the world’s 50 largest technology companies are based in Europe. Unable to produce globally competitive technology champions, Brussels is using taxes, fines, mandates and procurement preferences to manufacture advantages its companies have not earned in the marketplace.
When American officials objected earlier this year, European policy experts reportedly argued that U.S. companies “feeling the pain” proved Europe’s laws were working.
The pain, in other words, is the point.
A Section 301 investigation will formally document these discriminatory practices and give the administration leverage to impose consequences if Europe refuses to change course.
President Trump was right to call for Section 301, and his message has been clear: American companies are neither Europe’s piggy bank nor its punching bag. Now, Greer must follow through and open the investigation without delay.
Steve Forbes is an American economist, entrepreneur and prominent publishing executive.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: EU is punishing US tech giants. Trump is right to defend them. | Opinion
