Donald Trump says the United States will launch an investigation into the European Union and threatened to impose new tariffs over fines imposed on some of the largest American technology companies.

It comes days after the European Commission fined Google €890 million ($1 billion) for operating in a way that excluded competitors from its services.

In a post on Trump-owned Truth Social, the US president said the EU would pay a “very high price” for how it had treated Google, along with other major US tech companies Apple, Meta and Amazon, which have also been investigated.

“The United States of America is not a ‘piggy bank’ for Europe, nor will we allow it to be!” he wrote.

Trump said any fines should be “completely reversed” and that he was launching an EU trade investigation while considering “a substantial TARIFF.”

He added that the United States would “immediately launch a 301 investigation” into European regulators’ alleged practice of “stealing from American companies and, in turn, American taxpayers.”

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, external gives the Office of the United States Trade Representative the power to react and investigate trade practices that are considered unfair. The second Trump administration has launched several such investigations., external since last year.

The tariff threat comes just a day after Trump announced new tariffs on 60 trading partners, including the EU, the UK and China, of between 10% and 12.5%.

Trump also threatened last month with a 100% import tariff on any European country that introduces a digital services tax on American tech giants, even though many of those nations are already doing so., external for years.

Major technology companies, including Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon, have donated millions of dollars to the funds behind Trump’s campaign and presidency.

José Castañeda, a Google spokesman, told the BBC that the company had “worked hard to comply” with Europe’s Digital Markets Act, but had “expressed our concerns about the impact of recent EC decisions.”

“We appreciate the commitment of the United States administration and government,” Castañeda added.

In addition to the recent fine against Google, Trump claimed in his post that Apple had received EU fines of $15 billion, Meta fines of $3 billion, and Amazon fines of $2.5 billion.

Representatives from Meta, Apple and Amazon, as well as the European Commission, have been contacted for comment.

It was unclear where the numbers cited by Trump came from.

Shortly before Trump was elected president in 2024, he said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, had called him directly to complain about fines the company had received from European regulators.

The call came shortly after Apple lost a long dispute over unpaid taxes.

Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been fined several times by EU regulators, including for violations of competition and user privacy laws., external. It also faces new fines for allegedly “addictive” features of its apps.

Meta said last year that the EU was “trying to hurt successful American companies.”

Amazon, however, appears to have been investigated at times by the European Commission but avoided significant fines. The company reached an agreement with regulators in 2022 to change some of its practices in Europe.