U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he will launch a trade investigation against the European Union in protest of fines imposed on US tech giants, while hinting at "major" tariffs on the 27 EU member states.

In a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday (July 24), Trump accused the European Union of looting American companies and, by extension, American taxpayers.

His anger follows the European Union's recent decision to fine US tech giant Google nearly one billion dollars. The EU claims that Google damaged competition in the online search market by giving preference to its own services.

Trump wrote in his post, "The European Union is at it again, directly targeting great American companies as they always do." Along with Google, he also cited previous EU fines against Apple, Meta, and Amazon.

Trump claimed that the latest fine against Google was issued "without explanation."

However, the European Commission stated that the reason for imposing the 890 million euro fine on Google was its failure to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law created to monitor the activities of big tech companies.

Trump stated that such behavior by the European Union will no longer be tolerated under his administration. He wrote, "The United States is not Europe’s 'piggybank,' and we will not allow it to be."

Trump announced that the United States will "immediately" launch an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This provision allows the US to impose tariffs on commercial practices deemed unfairly detrimental to American trade.

The Trump administration has previously launched multiple investigations using its tariff-imposing authority. Just hours prior, the United States imposed new tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on products from more than 80 countries, including the European Union, citing forced labor.

On Friday afternoon, a lawsuit was filed in the US Court of International Trade against these tariffs.

The Liberty Justice Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of two small businesses. The suit alleges that the US government is attempting to enforce Trump's 2025 so-called "Liberation Day" tariffs—which were struck down by the US Supreme Court earlier this year—by utilizing Section 301 of the Trade Act.

Trump said, "The European Union will pay a big price for this illegal and highly unethical treatment of US technology companies. I have been warning them about this consistently."

He added, "These fines must be completely rescinded, and we expect large-scale tariffs to be imposed on them as soon as possible. Stay tuned."