The U.S. tech industry has allied itself with President Donald Trump, partly in the hope that he will protect their interests abroad. But that also makes them a target for countries that want to push back against Trump’s tariffs.
On Wednesday, the day after the Trump administration slapped a new 10% tariff on Chinese imports—ostensibly because of illegal immigration and the drug trade—Bloomberg reported that China’s antitrust agency was preparing to launch a possible probe into Apple’s practices.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation is reportedly looking at Apple’s 30% cut of in-app purchases and its restrictions against third-party app stores and external payment services. All of these are issues that have already been tackled elsewhere, most notably in the European Union, whose recent Digital Markets Act has forced Apple to partially open up its ecosystem.
Alongside retaliatory tariffs against U.S. fossil fuels, machinery, and vehicles, China also responded to the new U.S. tariffs by launching an antitrust probe into Google, although details about the precise allegations are scarce. (Chinese academics have suggested it’s to do with restrictions Google places on Chinese smartphone manufacturers.) Google doesn’t offer consumer services in China, but its ad business has a presence there.
Europe measures
Meanwhile, Europe is threatening to hit U.S. tech firms with drastic measures if Trump uses tariffs as a way of twisting its arm.
Trump said Sunday that tariffs “will definitely happen with the European Union,” and there is clearly a suspicion in Brussels that his aim would be to coerce the EU into letting the U.S. take Greenland from Denmark and/or easing up regulatory pressure on U.S. Big Tech.
New Meta policy chief Joel Kaplan on Tuesday reiterated CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s view that EU fines on Big Tech—such as Meta’s recent $840 million antitrust penalty over Facebook Marketplace—amount to “a tax or tariff on U.S. companies.” Zuckerberg last month urged Trump to intervene against the EU levying such fines.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that the European Commission was considering using its “anti-coercion” mechanism, introduced in 2023 and already deployed to deter Chinese import restrictions, to strike back against the anticipated U.S. tariff broadside.
The tool would allow the EU to restrict Big Tech’s ability to serve European users, and also to place limits on “trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.” Fortune asked the Commission to specify what this might mean in practice, but it refused to provide comment.
The FT article quoted two unnamed EU officials. One said “all options were on the table” when it came to countering potential U.S. tariffs, though the other said it was not a sure thing that the EU would target U.S. services and intellectual property rights for the first time.
Trade lawyer Simon Lester, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, told Fortune that it was possible countries were targeting Big Tech because such companies are the U.S.’s crown jewels, and also perhaps because they have allied themselves with Trump.
“As to where it’s going, we’re all just trying to figure out what Trump actually cares most about,” Lester added. “Is it eliminating trade deficits? Generating tariff revenue? Coercing particular behavior from other countries? No one knows!”
Trump’s tariff announcements have been chaotic. Less than a week ago, he announced 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports, only to press pause within a couple days after those countries made minor concessions about stepping up security on their borders with the U.S.
But before the American reversal on its Canadian tariffs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced he would be “ripping up” his province’s recently signed contract with Starlink, the satellite-operating subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Musk was the biggest funder of Trump’s reelection campaign and is currently attempting to dismantle parts of the U.S. government in his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
“Ontario won’t do business with people hell-bent on destroying our economy,” Ford fulminated. He later paused the retaliatory measure after Trump delayed implementation of his anti-Canada tariffs by 30 days.
Starlink’s expansion plans in Musk’s native South Africa are also now in doubt, following the Trump administration’s threat to withhold HIV-drug funding over a controversial new land reform law in the country.
Update: This article was updated to include Simon Lester’s comment and a mention of what Chinese academics are suggesting might be the reasons for the Google antitrust probe there.