Europe’s relationship with the US is shattering.
Under Donald Trump’s second term, trade friction has returned, and digital dominance by US companies is now under strain. And this time it’s serious.
European institutions and voters are responding not just with frustration, but with action.
A growing wave of regulation, open-source investment, digital taxes, and AI restrictions is turning the “Buy from EU” movement into a coordinated policy direction.
Is consumer sentiment actually changing?
Recent surveys show a measurable change in European buying behavior away from US brands.
According to the European Central Bank’s March 2025 Consumer Expectations Survey, 44% of euro area respondents said they were willing to reduce their spending on American goods.
Among wealthier households, the number was even higher.
But what’s more telling is that the main reason wasn’t price, but preference.
The median “substitution score” among those who chose to switch due to preference was 95 out of 100. That number held steady even when hypothetical tariffs were set at just 5%.
In Germany, the trend is even clearer. A May 2025 survey showed that over half of respondents were either already cutting back on US products or planning to do so.
Nearly a third said they wanted to stop using American-made smartphones.
Around 30% said they were actively avoiding US computer hardware and social media services.
This isn’t consumer behavior driven by convenience or cost. It’s political.
Many in Germany cited disapproval of Trump’s support for far-right groups like the AfD as a reason to change their purchasing choices.
In today’s climate, “Made in USA” can act as a warning label rather than a selling point.
Why Meta may become the EU’s biggest legal target
Meta is preparing to train its AI models using decades of data from European users, such as posts, photos, comments, and that without asking for permission.
The company is claiming “legitimate interest” under GDPR, which allows for certain uses of personal data without explicit consent. Privacy watchdogs disagree.
The group noyb, led by Max Schrems, has filed a cease-and-desist and is preparing for court.
This is not the first time Meta has relied on the same legal argument.
In 2023, it was forced to drop “legitimate interest” as a justification for personalized advertising.
Schrems argues that if Meta cannot target users with ads under that basis, it certainly cannot feed their personal histories into AI models.
Noyb estimates Meta could face damages of over €200 billion if a class-action suit proceeds.
That figure is based on €500 per user across Meta’s roughly 400 million monthly users in the EU.
Meta argues that it needs user data to make its models more culturally aware, but other companies like OpenAI and France’s Mistral manage without social media datasets.
Meta may not only lose the legal fight, it may lose the narrative in Europe altogether.
Could open source replace US software dominance in public institutions?
Germany’s federal government spends €1.3 billion annually on software. More than €200 million of that goes directly to Microsoft.
These contracts lock public institutions into proprietary ecosystems that are expensive and inflexible.
A growing number of European institutions are looking for a way out.
Open-source alternatives offer more than cost savings. They allow public institutions to host their own data, tailor systems to national needs, and avoid relying on US cloud infrastructure.
For countries concerned about the US Cloud Act, which could compel American companies to hand over data even if stored abroad, that distinction is extremely important.
Several European governments are making open-source the default. France’s 2030 digital transition plan prioritizes FLOSS solutions.
Germany’s openDesk project is providing modular systems for municipalities. Switzerland has passed a law mandating open-source software for public administration.
This is no longer just a technical conversation. It’s a political one. Countries are using procurement policy to build digital sovereignty.
Why Germany wants to tax Google and Meta
On May 29, 2025, Germany’s Minister of State for Culture, Wolfram Weimer, proposed a 10% tax on digital services offered by large online platforms like Google and Meta.
The aim is to tax revenue generated within Germany by companies that, in his words, “pay hardly any taxes, invest too little, and give far too little back to society.”
The plan isn’t yet government policy, but it reflects a shift in attitude.
Trump has warned that any such tax would trigger retaliatory tariffs.
Similar digital service taxes in France and the UK prompted Section 301 investigations and threats of economic retaliation during Trump’s first term.
Weimer says he is willing to take the risk. He compared Google’s influence on public knowledge to a monopoly over language itself.
If a company has the power to rename geographic regions or filter political news, he argued, then taxing it is the least a government should do.
What happened with Google Maps and why it matters
During the 2025 Ascension Day holiday in Germany, drivers using Google Maps were misled into thinking that large parts of the autobahn system were closed.
The app showed hundreds of false roadblocks and stop signs.
The issue also affected users in Belgium and the Netherlands. It led to widespread delays, with drivers flooding alternative roads and calling police hotlines in confusion.
Google later blamed a mix of third-party data, user reports, and slow filtering.
Other navigation apps like Waze and Apple Maps showed no problems. Google said it was working on removing the false reports but declined to offer a specific cause.
Some argue that this wasn’t just a technical glitch. It demonstrated the risks of relying on a single US-controlled platform for critical infrastructure.
For policymakers arguing in favor of European-controlled digital services, it was proof that the infrastructure of daily life should not be outsourced to foreign companies with opaque data systems.
At the end of the day, what’s clear is that Europe is building firewalls. Not just against foreign surveillance or trade shocks, but against the loss of digital self-determination.
This is part of a bigger trend, a bigger plan with the ultimate goal of reducing Europe’s reliance on the US.
Whether it’s about products, infrastructure, or AI training, perhaps it’s about time that Europe aims not just to regulate the future, but to own it.
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