France sees US tech fines as piggy bank for EU – Business News
A high ally of French President Emmanuel Macron gloated that the European Union is treating fines on US tech giants like a piggy bank to bankroll the bloc’s own spending — a brazen disclosure the White House likened to “extortion.”
France’s Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad advised Tuesday that the EU, the self-styled free commerce membership of 27 nations, use billions squeezed out of companies like Google as “a new revenue stream” to slash membership charges and help fund its lavish outgoings.
He bragged on dwell TV that the 4.6 billion euro, or $5.2 billion, money grab extracted from the search giant serves as a helpful “windfall” for EU governments as they appear to agree a large new 2 trillion euro, seven-year spending plan.
French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad brazenly pushed to make use of Google’s $5.2 billion antitrust high quality to decrease EU member states’ funds dues during a tv interview Tuesday.
“This is a new revenue stream for the European Union — 4.6 billion euros — that should automatically lower the contributions of all member states,” Haddad instructed public broadcaster France Info, referring to the yearly charges every of the 27 nations pay to a central funds in Brussels to fund shared targets.
“This is a discussion we have with the European Union every single time, precisely to keep member states’ contributions under control,” the French MP added. “Therefore, this 4.6 billion-euro windfall tied to the Google fine is good news for the member states as well.”
Google was hit with the high quality, for breaking antitrust guidelines, in 2018. It solely formally paid up in July after shedding its closing appeal in a years-long legal battle over its Android working system.
With the EU already slapping Google with a staggering 10.38 billion-euro, or $11.7 billion, in penalties over time, Haddad’s feedback appeared to offer an extraordinary affirmation of what US critics have long suspected — Europe’s regulatory campaign is much less about truthful play and more about raiding US company coffers to line its own pockets.
The White House slammed the rip-off.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the EU’s antitrust fines and tech taxes as unfair in the direction of US corporations. Bonnie Cash / Pool through CNP / SplashNews.com
“President Trump has unequivocally warned trading partners against imposing digital services taxes, fines, and other forms of extortion on America’s leading technology sector. The administration remains committed to raising these issues with our trading partners,” White House spokesman Kush Desai stated in a Tuesday assertion.
The relentless battering meted out by EU regulators in opposition to US tech companies has long been a bugbear for the commander-in-chief.
Ahead of the G7 summit in France in June, the onetime real estate mogul threatened in an unique interview with The Post to hit French wines and champagnes with a 100% tariff except France drops its own digital tax on US tech giants. Both sides reached an settlement to resolve the matter final month, in accordance with Macron.
The European Union has squeezed more than $11.7 billion in penalties out of Google over almost twenty years in what critics call a blatant shakedown of American tech giants. dpa/image alliance through Getty Images
The EU’s conflict with Google is only one entrance in a decades-long regulatory siege by Brussels in opposition to American tech titans, producing tens of billions of {dollars} in penalties over antitrust, privateness, and tax practices.
In 2024, Apple misplaced a landmark eight-year legal battle that noticed the European Court of Justice pressure the iPhone maker to cough up 13 billion euros, or $14.4 billion in alleged unlawful tax breaks to Ireland.
That identical yr, Eurocrats whacked Apple again — this time with a 1.8 billion euro, or $2 billion, antitrust penalty — for supposedly stopping rival music streaming companies, together with Spotify, from pointing customers to cheaper subscription offers exterior the App Store.
Facebook mum or dad Meta has been caught in the identical crosshairs below the bloc’s draconian General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.
Haddad serves as a minister in French President Emmanuel Macron’s authorities. Macron will go away workplace in May on the finish of his second and closing five-year time period in France’s high job. Best Image / BACKGRID
Any firm working on the web that touches a European person’s knowledge should adjust to EU privateness guidelines or face ruinous fines of up to 4% of its total world annual turnover.
European privateness watchdogs slapped Meta with a staggering 1.2 billion euro, or $1.3 billion, high quality in 2023 over transatlantic person knowledge transfers, claiming the information wasn’t protected from US surveillance.
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant additionally stays locked in a bitter dispute with Brussels over its “pay or consent” subscription model.
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The transatlantic battles have solely escalated following the rollout of the EU’s landmark Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act (DSA) — sprawling new tech legal guidelines which have cemented the bloc’s popularity as Silicon Valley’s chief tormentor.
In December 2025, the European Commission made Elon Musk’s X its first sufferer below the DSA, hitting the platform with a 120 million euro, or $136 million, penalty.
The sweeping law forces large platforms like X, TikTok, and Meta to actively scrub what bureaucrats deem “illegal” content material, hate speech, and disinformation.
Brussels primarily accused X of tricking customers with its blue checkmark system, slacking on advert transparency, and stonewalling researchers making an attempt to eavesdrop on public knowledge.
