Afrasianet - U.S. President Donald Trump said the European Union has returned to its usual practices and has directly targeted major U.S. companies.
"After fining Apple $15 billion for no reason, Meta $3 billion, Amazon $2.5 billion, and many others, we just learned that Google, a sophisticated and wonderful company, was fined another billion dollars without any explanation, bringing the total fines imposed on Google to more than $18 billion," Trump said.
He said that this illegal and discriminatory practice began on a large scale during the first year of the Joe Biden administration, but will not continue under the Trump administration.
Trump stressed that the United States of America is not a "fund" for Europe, and will not allow it.
"Let this fact be proof that we will immediately launch an investigation under Section 301 into the practice of 'looting' American companies, and thus the looting of American taxpayers," the president continued.
Trump stressed that the European Union will pay a heavy price for this illegal and immoral behavior, which it has repeatedly warned against, according to the text of the post.
President Trump made it clear that the sanctions would be fully lifted and a major tariff would be imposed on the EU as soon as possible, concluding: "Stay tuned for more!"
The European Commission fined Google a total of 890 million euros (about $1 billion) after it was found guilty of violating the Digital Markets Act, by giving its services a preference in search results and imposing restrictions on app developers within the Google Play Store.
In a statement on Thursday, the commission said it had imposed a fine of 460 million euros ($523.5 million) for Google's preference for services such as shopping, hotels, transportation and sports, at the expense of competing services in search results, in addition to a further fine of 430 million euros ($489.4 million) due to restrictions that prevent app developers from directing users to cheaper purchasing options outside of the Google Play Store.
The Digital Markets Law obliges companies classified as "gatekeepers" not to give their services preferential treatment in the ranking of search results, and requires them to allow developers to inform users of alternative purchase channels without unjustified fees or restrictions.
The Commission noted that Google offered its services at the top of search results with visual features and filtering tools that are not available to competing services, and found that the fees charged by the company for activities related to directing users outside the App Store, as well as the duration of the charges, exceeded the limits allowed by law.
The commission gave Google 60 days to comply with the decision, warning that it could impose additional fines of up to 5% of the company's total global annual revenue if it does not comply with the rules.
Meanwhile, the Commission acknowledged that Google has begun testing changes to the way its services are displayed in search results and has made changes to the App Store rules, arguing that these steps represent progress toward complying with the requirements of the law.
