OPEN LETTER: To Everyone Who Thinks They Can Tax Google, Meta and Amazon Without Consequences

June 26, 2026: A Message Leaving No Room for Doubt

On June 26, 2026, Donald Trump posted a message on Truth Social that left no ambiguity: "Many European countries are discussing the imminent implementation of a Digital Services Tax on American companies. Let this message serve to indicate that any country imposing such a tax will be immediately hit with a 100% tariff on all its goods exported to the United States." He specified that this tariff would "supersede trade agreements concluded with the country, whether in effect, signed, or not."

I write this letter not to defend Trump, whose methods I do not always endorse, but to name a reality that too many governments refuse to acknowledge: taxing American tech giants is not merely a fiscal policy — it is a geopolitical act. And in the world of 2026, geopolitical acts have immediate consequences.

What the Digital Tax Really Is

The Digital Services Tax (DST) — nicknamed the "GAFA tax" in France, the "Web tax" in Italy, the "Google tax" in the media — is a levy on the revenues that large technology platforms derive from users in a given country. Its stated aim is fiscal justice: making these companies pay where they generate value, not only where they are headquartered. The argument is legitimate. But its proponents consistently overlook one essential point: these taxes target almost exclusively American companies — Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple. These are not neutral taxes.

I understand the frustration of European governments. These platforms generate billions on their territories and pay derisory taxes. That is unfair. But fiscal injustice is not corrected in isolation — it is corrected through multilateral negotiation. Acting alone means standing exposed alone.

Ottawa Backed Down, and That Was Not Weakness

Last year, Canada had announced its own version of the digital tax. Trump threatened to break off all trade negotiations. Ottawa ultimately withdrew the tax before it came into force. Many cried capitulation. I say that was pragmatism. Canada exports more than 75% of its goods to the United States. A 100% tariff would have been an economic catastrophe for entire sectors — automotive, aluminum, agriculture.

Europe is in a different position — but not as different as it likes to believe. Some European countries, particularly those in Central and Eastern Europe, depend heavily on exports to the United States and cannot afford a tariff escalation. And even for the large economies — France, Germany, Italy — the threat of a 100% tariff on all their exports is a brutal economic reality that cannot be brushed aside in the name of fiscal sovereignty.

The Legal Dynamic: Can Trump Actually Do This?

The question of Trump's legal authority to impose these tariffs remains open. The Supreme Court recently struck down his global "reciprocal tariffs," ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give the president the power to impose such unilateral generalized tariffs. Trump responded by invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for a global 10% tariff, but that provision is limited to 150 days.

For a 100% tariff targeting specific countries, the legal basis is even less clear. But — and this is crucial — Europe cannot bet on the judicial invalidation of these tariffs. Legal proceedings take months, sometimes years. In the meantime, exporters suffer real and immediate harm. The risk is too great to incur deliberately.

I am tired of hearing European governments say "Trump doesn't have the right to do this." Perhaps. But he can start doing it, and while the courts deliberate, farmers, automakers, and wine and spirits producers pay the price. Rights without power protect no one.

A Protectionist Shield Disguised as Trade Policy

Let us name things plainly: the threat of a 100% tariff on foreign digital taxes is, in its practical effect, an American protectionist shield for Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple in their international markets. These companies do not need direct lobbying in Washington — the American government does the work for them.

This is, moreover, consistent with American trade policy for decades: the United States protects its industrial and technological champions with the same energy with which it preaches free markets. When it comes to automobiles, steel, or agriculture, America protects its interests without apology. The novelty with Trump is simply the bluntness of the statement — where his predecessors used quiet diplomatic channels, he tweets.

More Than Twelve Countries Affected: The Scale of the Problem

According to CNBC, more than twelve countries have already implemented digital services taxes. In Europe, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, but also Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia had envisaged or put such mechanisms in place. Outside Europe, Chile, South Korea, and New Zealand had signaled their intention to do so. Trump's threat targets them all.

In doing so, Washington exerts pressure not only on national fiscal policies, but also on nations' ability to regulate the digital space of their own markets. This is a sovereignty offensive, conducted under a tariff banner. And for now, it is working: no government has yet announced its intention to defy the threat.

What deeply bothers me about this matter is not that Trump is defending American interests — that is his job. What bothers me is that Europe still has no coordinated, unified, and powerful response to this form of coercion. It deliberates while Washington acts.

Pillar One: A Unkept Promise

The OECD has been working for years on an international agreement to tax digital multinationals where they generate their revenues — the famous "Pillar One" of the global tax deal. The idea was precisely to prevent each country from acting unilaterally and exposing itself to American retaliation. But negotiations drag on, positions diverge, and deadlines extend indefinitely.

This multilateral vacuum is precisely what drives governments to act alone — and it is in that vacuum that Trump places his lever. The solution, therefore, is not to capitulate to the American threat, but to force an acceleration of OECD negotiations, build a common European position, and use the collective economic weight of the European Union to negotiate from a position of strength.

Reciprocity: The Weapon Europe Dares Not Use

The European Union has instruments of commercial reciprocity. It can impose customs duties on American products in retaliation for unjustified tariffs. It did so with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes obligations on technological gatekeepers, including American giants. But it hesitates to deploy its commercial levers with the same aggressiveness as Washington, for fear of escalation and the impact on its own economies.

This hesitation is understandable, but it has a cost: it encourages Washington to believe that unilateral pressure works. And if it works, it will be repeated. Europe must decide whether it wants to be an equal partner of the United States or a captive market. That decision cannot be indefinitely deferred.

I say this with all the ambivalence of a European who fundamentally believes in the transatlantic alliance. I do not want to see Europe in an economic war with the United States. But an alliance of equals requires that both parties respect each other. And being threatened with a 100% tariff is not respect.

Technological Dependency: The Real Problem

At its core, the digital tax debate reveals an uncomfortable truth: Europe and most of the world's democracies are massively dependent on American technology platforms for their economic and social lives. Google manages searches. Meta manages conversations. Amazon manages a growing share of commerce. This dependency is both economic and strategic.

Taxing these platforms is a partial response to this problem — it generates tax revenues, but it does not reduce the dependency. The real answer would be to invest massively in European alternatives, to fund continental technology champions, to build a sovereign digital infrastructure. Europe has begun this work — with the cloud Airbus, semiconductor projects, Gaia-X — but too slowly, too timidly, with too few resources.

The Paradox of Digital Democracies

Liberal democracies find themselves in a paradoxical situation: they allowed private companies to build information infrastructures as critical as roads or electrical grids, but without the public regulation and oversight that accompany those physical infrastructures. The digital tax is a belated attempt to correct this imbalance. But it cannot succeed as long as governments have not resolved the question of structural dependency.

In the meantime, Trump's threat has at least had one merit: it has exposed this paradox with a bluntness that years of muffled OECD negotiations had failed to produce. Perhaps that is, in the end, the only virtue of the Trump method: forcing others to confront realities they preferred to ignore.

I have an uncomfortable thesis to put forward: Trump's 100% threat could paradoxically accelerate the construction of European digital sovereignty. Sometimes, the existential threat is the best catalyst for change. I hope I will not have to verify that in practice.

Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon in the International Crossfire

We must honestly ask whether American tech giants actually want Trump to brandish this threat on their behalf. On the surface, yes: every dollar of avoided digital tax is a dollar of preserved profit. But the reality is more complex. These companies operate worldwide. They have employees, servers, and partnerships in every targeted country. A generalized trade war exposes them to foreign government retaliation — tighter regulation, data localization requirements, service blocking.

Meta has already been condemned to billions of euros in fines by the European Commission for GDPR violations. Google faces antitrust proceedings in multiple jurisdictions. Amazon is targeted by investigations into its commercial practices in Europe. These companies have been navigating a hostile regulatory environment for years — and an additional tariff escalation does not simplify their situation. Trump's protection has a cost.

The Question of Regulation Versus Taxation

There is an important distinction that European governments sometimes struggle to make: taxing these platforms and regulating them are two different things. The digital tax seeks to recapture part of the revenues generated on national territory. Regulation — the European Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act — seeks to change the behavior of these platforms. Trump's threat explicitly targets taxation, not regulation.

This opens an intermediate path for Europe: abandon unilateral digital taxes while maintaining and strengthening behavioral regulation. This approach would avoid the tariff escalation while continuing to frame platform power. It may be the most politically realistic compromise in the current context — even if it leaves the question of fiscal equity entirely unresolved.

I see a certain hypocrisy in the major tech platforms hiding behind Trump to avoid taxes while claiming to be civic-minded companies committed to democracy and transparency. You cannot have it both ways. Either you accept contributing fiscally to the societies from which you derive your revenues, or you give up the virtuous posture.

Countries That Tax but Are Not European

Trump's threat does not target only Europe. More than twelve countries have implemented digital services taxes — including Global South countries such as Chile, South Korea, and New Zealand. India had its own version of the digital tax ("Equalisation Levy"), which was the subject of negotiations with Washington. These countries are in an even more vulnerable position than Europe vis-à-vis American tariff pressure.

What this situation reveals is that Trump's trade policy does not truly distinguish allies from adversaries, democracies from authoritarian regimes. It targets all who dare tax American companies — Europe, India, Chile — with the same weapon. It is a policy that erodes alliances just as much as it protects American commercial interests.

The Solidarity of the Targeted: A Coalition Possible?

Faced with this American unilateral pressure, the idea of a coalition of countries that want to tax digital services has been raised in several capitals. If Europe, India, and other countries coordinated their digital fiscal policies, they would present Washington with a front far more difficult to break. A 100% tariff on all EU and Indian exports simultaneously would be an economically catastrophic measure for the United States itself.

But this coalition does not yet exist — and its construction runs into the divergent interests of potential members. Europe is simultaneously negotiating with the United States on other trade files. India is seeking a bilateral deal with Washington. Each country calculates that it is better to negotiate alone than in a group — which is precisely the strategy Trump seeks to exploit.

Trump's strength in trade negotiations is to divide and conquer. He threatens everyone simultaneously, then negotiates individual exceptions. Against this method, the only effective response is unity — and that is precisely what democracies struggle most to build.

A Coherent and Coordinated European Strategy

What I am asking, in this letter, of European governments that want to tax tech giants, is coherence. Not capitulation, not provocation — coherence. This means three concrete things: first, do not act alone but build a common position at the level of the European Union before advancing any digital taxation. Second, use the collective leverage of the EU — the world's largest single market — to negotiate with Washington from a position of strength, not vulnerability. Third, invest simultaneously in European technology champions to reduce the structural dependency that makes the American threat so effective.

These three things take time. They are politically difficult. They require sacrificing immediate gains for a stronger long-term position. That is the price of sovereignty in the digital world — and it is a price that Europe will one day have to decide to pay, or admit that it has renounced control over its own information space.

To the United States: A Call for Real Reciprocity

And to those in Washington who are driving this aggressive trade policy, I also want to say something: reciprocity cannot be one-way. You demand fiscal freedom for your technology companies abroad. But your own technology companies engage in anti-competitive practices that your antitrust courts struggle to address, have tax policies that allow them to pay derisory effective rates, and wield lobbying power unmatched in any of the democracies that are your allies. International fiscal justice is a legitimate objective — for everyone, including American companies at home.

This is not anti-Americanism. It is a call for consistency that any sincere ally of the United States is entitled to make. The West will be stronger when its members hold each other to common standards — not when the most powerful crush the less powerful with 100% tariffs.

I realize as I write this letter that I am asking Europe to be stronger vis-à-vis Washington and asking Washington to be fairer toward its allies. These two demands may seem contradictory. They are not: an alliance of equals requires that each party be both capable of defending itself and willing to respect the others.

To Whom I Address These Words

I write to all those who want to tax American tech giants: I understand your motivations. Fiscal justice is a legitimate cause. But act collectively, not alone. Build a coalition — within the European Union, at the OECD, with other like-minded democracies. And while you build that coalition, invest in your own technology champions to reduce the dependency that makes the American threat so effective.

I also write to governments that think Trump's threat is mere posturing: perhaps. But "perhaps" is not a foreign policy. And recent history — Canada's retreat, the pressure on Europe over NATO defense spending — shows that Trump is prepared to go far to get what he wants.

The West Needs Coherence, Not Capitulation

What I am advocating here is not submission to American diktats. It is strategic coherence. If the West — and Europe in particular — wants to remain a sovereign actor in the digital world, it must think of its fiscal policy, its technology policy, and its trade policy as an integrated whole. Not as three ministries that ignore each other. The stakes are not a tax rate. The stakes are who controls the infrastructure of modernity.

This open letter will probably go unanswered — open letters almost always do. But they have value: they name things, they ask uncomfortable questions, they refuse to treat trade policy as a disembodied technical domain. Digital taxation is a question of who controls the resources of modernity. That question deserves to be debated publicly.

By Maxime Marquette, columnist

Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a columnist and analyst. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. I claim analytical clarity, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

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