President Donald Trump’s administration warned on Tuesday that the United States could impose fees or restrictions on European service providers in response to what it called “discriminatory” actions against US firms.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), in a post on X, accused the European Union and some of its member states of “discriminatory and harassing lawsuits, taxes, fines and directives against US service providers”, while arguing that EU companies such as Accenture, DHL, Siemens, Spotify and others “operate freely” in the United States.
“If the EU and EU member states insist on continuing to restrict, limit, and deter the competitiveness of US 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,” the USTR wrote.
It added that US law permits the assessment of fees or restrictions on foreign services “among other actions”, pointing to other EU service providers including Amadeus, Capgemini, Mistral, Publicis and SAP.
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The threat comes as Europe forges ahead with a crackdown on Big Tech companies. Regulators imposed a fine of €120 million on Elon Musk’s social media platform X earlier in December, just months after hitting Google with an unexpectedly high €2.95 billion charge.
The US government has repeatedly taken aim at EU digital legislation, linking reductions in US steel import tariffs to weaker EU digital rules and ordering its diplomats to launch a lobbying blitz against the laws.
The European Commission pushed back against the USTR’s accusations, saying its rules “apply equally and fairly to all companies operating in the EU”.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said in a statement that the bloc’s regulations are designed to ensure “a safe, fair and level playing field in the EU, in line with the expectations of our citizens”, and stressed that enforcement is carried out “without discrimination”.
Regnier added that the EU is “implementing the commitments in the EU–US Joint Statement” and remains engaged with Washington on trade issues.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)