# Have EU countries moved to ban Amazon over Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [April 5, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663 "2025-04-05T14:09:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/1 "2025-04-05T14:09:00Z")
Have EU countries moved to ban Amazon over Trump? As I recall, Bezos has helped to fund Trump. Have there been/will there be blocks for Amazon, internationally? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/2 "2025-04-05T14:21:15Z")
Not that I 'm aware of. I rather suspect EU law would forbid discrimination on purely political grounds. Which is not to say the EU Commission isn’t on their case in respect of their compliance with various legal requirements. I wouldn’t be surprised if that isn’t spun into "EU being nasty " and “freedom of speech” whines from Washington [https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-likely-face-investigation-under-eu-tech-rules-next-year-sources-say-2024-11-21/](https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-likely-face-investigation-under-eu-tech-rules-next-year-sources-say-2024-11-21/) [https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/european-commission-probes-amazon-over-recommendation-systems/](https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/european-commission-probes-amazon-over-recommendation-systems/) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/3 "2025-04-05T14:30:13Z")
I would doubt it very much. Bezos’s decision to support Trump may be foolish but it’s not illegal. eta: As PatrickLondon noted, there may be claims put forth by conservative media that “Europe banned Amazon” and those claims will be believed by the people that usually believe them. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/4 "2025-04-05T19:38:28Z")
We’re the crazy country with the giant toddler who rules by personal animosities, not Europe. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/5 "2025-04-05T20:13:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > As I recall, Bezos has helped to fund Trump. Apparently not. [https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=jeffrey+bezos](https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=jeffrey+bezos) Amazon itself donated $2,296,771 to Harris, $580,155 to the DNC, $580,155 to the “Democratic Senatorial Campaign Cmte” and a “mere” $212,765 to trump. In other words, Amazon donated some 15 times as much to dems as trump. Other Bezos donations- > **[Amazon’s Bezos donates $10 million to super PAC](https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=a1c1fcd6-7805-445f-8734-2ea5c926e629)** > > Amazon’s Bezos donates $10 million to super PAC _Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, are making their first major political contribution with a $10-million gift to a super PAC focused on electing veterans to public office._ _The super PAC, called With Honor, works with candidates across political parties. Unlike other mega-donors who have poured tens of millions of dollars into Republican or Democratic campaigns, the Bezoses chose a group whose 2018 mission includes reversing “the trend of veteran decline in Congress.”_ _This year, Forbes ranked Bezos — who owns the Washington Post — the richest man in the world, with a net worth of more than $150 billion. On Tuesday, Amazon became the second publicly traded company in the United States to reach a value of more than $1 trillion._ _Bezos’ most notable political donation before this cycle was in 2012, when he gave $2.5 million to the campaign to defend same-sex marriage in Washington state. Bezos has previously given to Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress._ Some people have said that the WaPo decision to not endorse candidates for president made it "pro trump’ but I dont see that. _He and his wife have given to the political action committees of [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) and Blue Origin, the commercial space company that Bezos founded. Both of those committees have supported Democrats and Republicans._ _The Bezoses have also given sporadic contributions to federal campaign committees. Since the 2014 election cycle, they have given $37,600 to four federal candidates: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)._ ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/6 "2025-04-05T21:55:06Z")
Spaniard living in the Netherlands here. No, Amazon has not been touched at all. It is business as usual with it. All the shops that I have checked work with no issues whatsoever (the main US one and the subsidiaries in Spain, France, Germany, UK, the Netherlands and Japan for good measure). Where have you heard that, anyway? Nobody has mentioned anything like that here in Europe as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/7 "2025-04-06T06:49:34Z")
I haven’t heard anything specific about Amazon, but there are newspaper articles about individuals trying to minimize their buying American stuff/services. Amazon isn’t very big in The Netherlands, fortunately, given what I hear about their pseudo-monopoly and business practices in the US. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/8 "2025-04-06T07:34:45Z")
I personally have definitely stopped using anything Amazon. We’re working on spoiling Jeff’s wedding to his plastic fantastic fiancé. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/9 "2025-04-06T09:14:16Z")
Of course not, what makes you think that? How could EU countries even try to ban a legitimate business that generates employment and pays its taxes (oh, wait…), and what does it have to do with trump? Individual citizens may be tempted for reasons to shop less at Amazon, but countries? The EU? I don’t even know who would try to decide that, on what grounds or at what level of government it could be decided. It seems to me such a decision would be arbitrary, discriminatory, would not applicable in practice nor executable and would not stand in court. I see great potential for lying about this in the usual TV channels and social media. As is often the case with conspiracies, I don’t understand the point. Some still do it. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/10 "2025-04-06T09:25:11Z")
The complaints about Bezos are more about his recent heavy handed control over the Washington Post’s editorial policy and his presence in various oligarch events around Trump. So more an issue of spineless compliance than active support. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/11 "2025-04-06T14:33:22Z")
My purchases have dropped by 90%. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/12 "2025-04-06T18:14:04Z")
Our government are definitely doing audits to check no software developers are doing stuff on AWS on their dime. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2025, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/13 "2025-04-06T22:21:43Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > So more an issue of spineless compliance than active support. This is it. Bezos doesn’t appear to be a born-again Trumper like Musk. Rather, he’s kissing the ring as an amoral maneuver to keep himself in contention for government contracts and avoid targeted blowback from a notoriously petty and vindictive executive who now holds all the cards. One thing Bezos and Musk do share is a private obsession with space exploration/tech and Bezos wants to snake Musk’s advantages in that field if he can. Or at least keep competing on a more even playing field without Trump’s thumb on the scale. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-eu-countries-moved-to-ban-amazon-over-trump/1016663/14 "2025-04-07T00:09:46Z")
And don’t forget that TrumpWorld ( specifically David Pecker of the National Enquirer, with the assistance of Jared Kushner and a Saudi prince) blew up his first marriage by exposing his affair with Lauren Sanchez and his intimate photos. They did this after unsuccessfully trying to blackmail Bezos into suppressing WaPo coverage of the Saudi state-sanctioned murder of one of their journalists. This is story that would’ve been a major scandal in any other administration, but it barely survived one news cycle. Maybe Bezos remembers that standing up for Trump didn’t work out so good for him before.