Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen is licensed under Creative Commons.

Google is facing mounting legal pressure as last week courts in the EU and U.S. issued major rulings implementing penalties on Google over alleged monopolistic behavior. While meant to promote competition, the rulings further a dangerous trend of punishing American companies for their success.

A D.C. federal circuit court ruled on Tuesday September 2nd, outlining remedies against Google over their distribution of search services. Initiated under the Biden administration, an investigation by the Department of Justice led to Google being found to have engaged in monopolistic behavior, violating the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. 

While last week’s ruling was a step back from Biden era proposals to break up Google—through the forceful sale of YouTube or Chrome—the court still imposed penalties that disproportionately harm Google. 

Under the conditions, Google is required to share search data with competitors and will face new limits to its distribution agreements. These penalties will artificially curb Google’s growth, stifling innovation. Worse, compelling Google to share large troves of personal information with rival companies risks significant data breaches.

The ruling was quickly followed by a similar decision in Europe. On Thursday the European Commission issued a €2.95 billion ($3.45 billion) fine over Google’s alleged self-preferencing of ad-services on Google operated websites and devices.

This is far from the first time foreign courts have discriminately targeted American companies. American tech companies have faced similar fines under legislation such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). Under the guise of promoting competition, European regulators have constructed a system that penalizes the success and innovativeness of American companies, seeking to take a cut of their profits.

President Trump has already taken note of the egregious fine, threatening to reintroduce reciprocal tariffs previously floated as a response to European digital service taxes. While his attention on the issues facing American companies abroad is crucial to address the ongoing abuse of American enterprise, combatting discrimination in foreign courts must be paired with domestic policies that allows innovation to flourish at home