The impact of the political tumult in the United States of America is being felt far beyond US borders. President Trump’s talk of expansion isn’t just Greenland, he also wants control over the Panama canal and again called for Canada to become the 51st state as the country voted federally. This and ongoing uncertainty about Trump’s tariff plans are prompting people the world over to find ways to avoid funneling money into the US. Thankfully, Denmark and Europe have great alternatives to US products and services and, despite the complexities of global trade, it’s getting easier to find them.
Here are some practical suggestions to help you take a stand against President Trump and keep your money in Europe (or, at least, away from the USA).
There’s an app for that!
BuyEuropean (Android and iOS, plus a Chrome extension and web version) aims to help
users empower Europe and the European economy with every purchase. Use this German-based app to snap a product photo and see its company and parent company location, along with European alternatives if needed.
While BuyEuropean has a straight-forward interface and readily identifies products, you may wish to take the results with a grain of salt. A search for Hellman’s mayonnaise (headquartered in New Jersey), for example, indicated the product was European because parent company Unilever is UK-based.
Buy European Only (Android, iOS, and web app) works by scanning a product barcode
and producing a percentage score showing how European it is. The score incorporates where the brand is headquartered (based on the barcode’s country code) and where the manufacturer is based and the product is made, along with where ingredients are sourced. For instance, Maille Dijon mustard is 80% European because the mustard seed is sourced from Canada (Maille’s parent company is UK-based Unilever).
French-based Détrumpez-vous! (Android and iOS) scans a
product barcode and notes if it’s European or not. The database appears to be France-centric, so it may not contain as many products from Danish shelves as other apps, but it’s easy to use and the name is magnifique.
Speaking of apps, the EU’s Digital Markets Act now allows access to alternative app stores, giving Europeans options beyond Apple’s App Store and Alphabet’s Google Play. Marketplaces like Setapp Mobile, Aptoide, AltStore, and B2B-focused mobivention provide users opportunities to discover, download, and pay for mobile apps without going through their device’s in-built app store. Game-centric Skich and Fortnite maker Epic Games Store also provide app purchases outside of Apple and Google’s native stores.
Although these alternate app stores are fairly new, many consumers and developers hope they represent a European shift from the two big marketplaces (Apple has long been criticized for its App Store practices) and will help independent developers.
Other search tools
If you’re not into downloading an app, try a browser-based option to check whether goods are European.
Go European draws on a team of human volunteers (mostly BuyFromEU subreddit members) to add companies to their community-driven database of European products and services (‘European’ here extends beyond the EU to all 46 Council of Europe members). The database has helpful filters to limit by digital/physical goods, category or product (e.g. what you’re seeking to find an alternative for) and country. The results link to brand websites and show where they’re headquartered and products are produced.
Go European also offers browser extensions for Firefox, Vivaldi, and Chrome.
Is it American uses AI to provide an ‘American Score’ out of 100. This reflects things like
the location of the company’s headquarters, where it was founded, and its ownership structure. For instance, Is it American ranks Scandi favourite Marabou (founded in Stockholm in 1916) at 80 on the American Score because it’s owned by American food-production giant Mondelēz International. Marabou was purchased by US-based Kraft in 1993 and then rebranded as part of global snacks company Mondelēz in 2012 (other Mondelēz brands include Oreo, Milka, Toblerone, and Cadbury).
Is it American also offers ‘European Alternatives’, which aren’t perfect (California-headquartered Fabletics showed up as an alternative to US/Canadian brand Lululemon), but can be a nice starting off point for finding non-US options.
Sharing Euro stars
For a low-tech way to prioritise purchasing European goods, the Salling Group started marking European products with black stars in March. In Føtex, Netto, and Bilka stores across Denmark, black stars on electronic price tags indicate European origin, although this doesn’t necessarily take into account parent company ownership. For instance, blueberries grown in Spain may be marked with a black star although the parent company (Driscoll’s) is based in California.
Since President Trump took office in January 2025, Facebook groups have sprung up with members sharing how they’re staying away from US products and services and providing resources for others to do the same. The Danish group Boykot varer fra USA currently has over 95K members and, in recognition of Meta’s American origin and base, its organizers have joined forces with other European groups to start an off-Facebook newsletter.
Vet your tech
With products from US companies like Microsoft (Windows and Office software, LinkedIn), Meta (Facebook, Threads, and WhatsApp), Alphabet (everything Google, along with Chromebooks, Pixel phones, and more), and Apple (iPhone/iPad, Safai, Apple Pay) deeply embedded in most people’s daily lives, it can feel impossible not to use American technology. But it is possible to lower your reliance on US-based tech — and potentially increase the security of your personal data and lessen the monetization of your information at the same time.
Better Tech (which aims to improve the availability and use of European alternatives) proposes low impact ways to lessen your technical dependence on the USA like:
- Moving away from the Chrome browser (they suggest US-based Firefox, which is developed by a US non-profit foundation; other options include Norwegian-founded and -headquartered Opera, which is majority owned by a Chinese company, and Norwegian-based Vivaldi).
- Replacing Google Translate with DeepL, which is based in Germany and available as a mobile and computer app.
- Substituting French-made Qwant for Google or Bing as your primary search engine.
- Switching away from Google or Apple Maps to HERE WeGo (based in the Netherlands).
- Trying LibreOffice, a free suite comparable to Microsoft Office (word processing, spreadsheet, presentations, etc.) made by a German charitable foundation and available in multiple languages, including Danish.
- Using Le Chat Mistral (from France) instead of ChatGPT or other US-based AI tools.
For other European-based tech, take a look at European Alternatives, which collects and analyzes European options for digital services and products. Categories range from consumer needs (like email providers, search engines, navigation apps, and password managers) to business-centric solutions (like payment service providers, web analytics, survey tools, and marketing automation software).
Businesses may also benefit from the European Commission’s Open Source Solutions Catalogue. The database brings together open source applications developed by and for EU public sector organizations, aiming to make them more visible and facilitate their sharing and reuse.
The unseen influence of payments
An often overlooked American incursion into daily life in Denmark comes in the form of payment providers. Co-branded national debit cards (e.g. Visa/Dankort) made up nearly 60% of transactions with Danish-issued cards in Denmark in 2024, with Dankort-only cards used for fewer than 1% of card payments and 40% coming from international debit cards issued by Danish banks (like the Mastercard Direct account from DanskeBank). This means that a company from the US (usually Visa or Mastercard) makes money from nearly every card transaction in Denmark — and with an average of 4.89M daily transactions using Danish-issued payment cards in 2024, that starts to add up!
If you have the option, consider using a Dankort-only card instead of co-branded Visa/Dankort, a Mastercard account, or another non-European owned payment provider (e.g. American Express or Discover). As an added bonus, Dankort charges merchants lower fees than Visa or Mastercard. Or you could use cash.
You can also switch to MobilePay (a Nordic company) instead of sending payments through US-based providers like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal.
It’s not all or nothing
For most Danish residents, a full boycott of goods and services from the United States of America is unthinkable — and unachievable. The reality of a global economy makes it nearly impossible to prevent any purchase from benefiting American-owned businesses, but perhaps that’s not the point.
Deliberate purchasing decisions, even if they aren’t a perfect refusal of American products, demonstrate that people in Denmark have the political will to fuel healthy local and European economies. And Telsa’s plunging sales show that the spending decisions of individuals can impact a company’s bottom line.
It remains to be seen whether there will be mass mobilisation of consumer power substantial enough to influence President Trump’s policies, but hopefully these tips will help if you want to take a stand with your spending.
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