The European Union and some of its biggest companies declined to be drawn into a fight on Wednesday after the United States administration issued threats of direct retaliation.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said late Tuesday that it would use every tool at its disposal to counter what it saw as “unreasonable” EU rules that disproportionately harm American companies operating in Europe.

Hinting at a retaliatory hit list, it named nine European companies that it said have “hitherto enjoyed … expansive market access” in the U.S. Those are: Ireland’s Accenture; Spain’s Amadeus; France’s Capgemini, Publicis and artificial intelligence darling Mistral; Germany’s DHL, SAP and Siemens; and Sweden’s Spotify.

While this is the latest instalment in a tit-for-tat exchange between the two jurisdictions, it’s the first time specific European companies have been called out.

The dialing-up of rhetoric from the Trump administration signals growing frustration among top officials in Washington over the EU’s tech rules.

The EU recently levied a €120 million fine on Elon Musk’s X for failing to meet transparency obligations, a move that drew a significant reaction from the U.S.

The European Commission — which is in charge of enforcing the digital laws that have angered Washington — responded to Tuesday’s intervention by sticking to its line that EU rules aren’t discriminatory and that it will continue to enforce them.

“As we have made clear many times, our rules apply equally and fairly to all companies operating in the EU,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier told POLITICO.

Mistral, SAP, Siemens and Spotify declined to comment. The other companies on the list did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Together, the listed companies have a market capitalization of over €800 billion, excluding Mistral’s €12 billion valuation.

Speaking to POLITICO in Strasbourg on Wednesday as he headed into a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the EU, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on U.S. relations Brando Benifei said: “I think that these declarations are not useful for the negotiations we have to do, and they are an attack on our regulatory autonomy, and I think they must be rejected firmly by our leaders.

“For sure, I will be clear with the U.S. interlocutors that they are not helpful. In fact, we are trying to advance on the issues on the table. And this is not good because it inflames the debate and will be, rightly so, not appreciated by our public opinions, the same constituents that want us to defend European interests.”

In an interview earlier this week, the EU’s trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said the EU and the U.S. “have a very similar view on economic security, on overcapacity across the world, on how to deal with non-market policies,” when asked how the X fine affects ongoing trade talks.

While U.S. President Donald Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck a broad trade bargain in July at the Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, many of the details are yet to be figured out and talks are very much ongoing.

The EU is seeking to shield a wide range of EU products from U.S. tariffs but has yet to implement its side of the bargain, such as removing duties on U.S. industrial goods and some agricultural products.

Reacting to the U.S. Trade Representative’s post, Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish politician who is the liberal Renew group’s trade coordinator and lead on U.S. relations, told POLITICO it was “totally against the spirit of the agreement we had this summer.”

Noting that the EU has promised to lower tariffs on items such as agricultural produce and lobsters, Karlsbro added: “We are working on this in the trade committee now. So these kind of messages from the U.S. is very worrying.”

Océane Herrero, Antonia Zimmermann and Camille Gijs contributed reporting.