The EU has imposed fines on US companies, and the US has threatened to retaliate against them

The Office of the United States Trade Representative said that if the EU insists on "continuing to restrict, weaken and hinder" the competitiveness of US service providers, the US side "will have to start using all available means to retaliate".

Xinhua News Agency reported that the Office of the United States Trade Representative posted on social media on Tuesday (December 16) that the European Union and some EU member states have been continuously using "discriminatory and harassing" lawsuits, taxes, fines and other means to restrict US service providers.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative listed nine European companies with extensive business operations in the United States, including Accenture, DHL and Siemens, suggesting that they might become targets of countermeasures.

Since the beginning of this year, the European Union has launched a series of enforcement actions against US technology enterprises in accordance with the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. The US side accused the EU's regulatory laws and regulations of being unfair to American technology enterprises and used the tariffs on steel and aluminum products as leverage to demand that the EU "loosen the restrictions". The EU, however, criticized the US move as "extortion", insisting that digital regulations are related to sovereignty and cannot be challenged.

On December 5th, the European Commission made its first "non-compliance decision" under the Digital Services Act, imposing a fine of 120 million euros on the social media platform X owned by US billionaire Elon Musk, which has triggered a strong reaction from the US side. US President Trump said that if the EU continues to punish US technology companies, the US will impose tariffs on Europe.