'Very unfair': Trump threatens EU tariffs for $3.47-billion Google antitrust fine

US President Donald Trump lashed out at the European Union Friday for slapping Google with an "unfair" $3.47 billion antitrust fine, threatening retaliatory tariffs if the bloc does not repeal the measure.

Trump's intervention came a day after he hosted tech titans for a gala dinner at the White House including Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai and co-founder Sergey Brin.

"Europe today 'hit' another great American company, Google, with a $3.5 Billion Dollar fine, effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs," Trump said on his Truth Social network.



"Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it!" Trump said.

Trump said the Google fine came on top of a series of other cases including Apple, which in 2016 was ordered by Brussels to pay Ireland back taxes totalling 13 billion plus interest.

"They should get their money back!" he said, adding that if not then he would start proceedings for retaliatory tariffs to "nullify the unfair penalties."

During the White House dinner on Thursday, Trump had congratulated Pichai and Brin over a US judge's ruling earlier this week which rejected the government's demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser as part of a major antitrust case.