President Trump on Wednesday criticized the European Union for levying hefty fines against the world's largest tech companies, calling it a “form of taxation” on American companies.
“They got $15 or $16 billion from Apple. They get billions from Google,” Trump said during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“These are American companies,” he continued. “Whether you like them or not, they're American companies and they shouldn't do it. That's why, as far as I'm concerned, it's a form of taxation. That's why there's so much frustration with the E.U. There is.”
The EU's top court ruled in September that Apple owes 13 billion euros (more than $14 billion) in back taxes to Ireland. On the same day, the court upheld an award of €2.4 billion, or $2.7 billion, or $2.7 billion against Google by EU antitrust regulators.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, was fined about 800 million euros, or about $840 million, in November for alleged antitrust violations.
Leaders of these tech giants have been close to Trump in the months since winning the election, visiting the president at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, donating to his first fund, and changing the policies of their platforms. Changed. It was viewed favorably by the president.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg were among the tech leaders who joined Trump at the inauguration on Monday, receiving the best seats in the Capitol Rotunda.
The tech titans, who also include Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, sit close to Trump's family and have been in front of the president's cabinet picks, but the Republican governor has been unable to control the Capitol overflow. I was chased into the room.
