Trump says a trade investigation of the European Union begins immediately, two days after Brussels fined Google €890 million

The European Commission fined Google €890 million on Thursday. Two decisions taken the same day found the company in breach of the Digital Markets Act. One, carrying €460 million, concerns self-preferencing in Google Search, where the Commission found that Google gives its own shopping, hotel, transport and sports results more prominent treatment than third-party services, at the top of the page or with enhanced visuals and filters. The other, carrying €430 million, concerns Google Play, where the Commission found that Google prevents app developers from freely telling users about cheaper offers elsewhere and from concluding contracts in distribution channels of their choosing. Both decisions order Google to bring the non-compliance to an end.

On Friday afternoon the response came from Washington. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that a trade investigation of the European Union would begin immediately, that the bloc "will pay a very big price", that the penalties would be reversed, and that a tariff on European goods would follow at the earliest possible moment. Melissa Quinn at CBS News reported the post and timed it at 2:38 p.m. Eastern.

What has not happened is the paperwork. A Section 301 investigation is opened by the United States Trade Representative, and the opening is published in the Federal Register, as it was on March 17 for the manufacturing overcapacity investigations that name the European Union among the economies under review. A search of Federal Register documents from the Trade Representative published on or after July 20 returns two items, a sugar tariff-rate quota notice and a notice of action concerning Brazil. Neither has anything to do with the fines.

So there is an announcement and there is not yet a proceeding. The distinction matters because the notice is the document that names the acts and practices at issue, sets the comment period, and starts the statutory clock. Until it appears, there is nothing to read.