US Considers Fining EU Companies in Response to Bloc’s Regulatory Actions

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) said Tuesday (Dec. 16) that the U.S. will consider imposing fees or restrictions on foreign companies in response to lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives imposed on U.S. service providers by the European Union (EU) and some EU member states.

Writing in a post on X, the USTR said the actions taken against these service providers have been “discriminatory and harassing.”

“U.S. services companies provide substantial free services to EU citizens and reliable enterprise services to EU companies, and they support millions of jobs and more than $100 billion in direct investment in Europe,” the USTR said in its post. “The United States has raised concerns with the EU for years on these matters without meaningful engagement or basic acknowledgement of U.S. concerns.”

USTR said that EU service providers have been allowed access to the U.S. market and consumers for decades, enabling them to operate freely and on a level playing field.

The agency spotlighted nine EU service providers that have enjoyed this access: Accenture, Amadeus, Capgemini, DHL, Mistral, Publicis, SAP, Siemens and Spotify.

“If the EU and EU Member States insist on continuing to restrict, limit and deter the competitiveness of U.S. service providers through discriminatory means, the United States will have no choice but to begin using every tool at its disposal to counter these unreasonable measures,” USTR said in its post.

The agency added that the U.S. will respond in a similar way to other countries that pursue an “EU-style strategy in this area.”

It was reported in January that President Donald Trump described the EU’s regulatory actions against major U.S. tech companies “a form of taxation.”

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump specifically addressed the bloc’s legal battles against American firms like Apple, Google and Meta Platforms, framing them as an unfair attack on U.S. businesses.

“They shouldn’t be doing that,” Trump said. “That’s, as far as I’m concerned, a form of taxation. We have some very big complaints with the EU.”

In November, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urged EU policymakers to ease digital regulations that predominantly affect major U.S. tech firms.

Lutnick argued that EU laws such as the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act place disproportionate pressure on U.S.-based tech giants because these laws apply to companies that exceed specific user-based thresholds.

“That can’t be the rules, let’s take it off,” Lutnick told Bloomberg at the time. He called for a more flexible model that would allow large platforms to “grow and build.”