Apps to boycott US goods gained traction in crisis over Greenland
[February 09, 2026] By
JAMES BROOKS
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The makers of mobile apps designed to help
shoppers identify and boycott American goods say they saw a surge of
interest in Denmark and beyond after the recent flare-up in tensions
over U.S. President Donald Trump's designs on Greenland.
The creator of the “Made O’Meter” app, Ian Rosenfeldt, said he saw
around 30,000 downloads of the free app in just three days at the height
of the trans-Atlantic diplomatic crisis in late January out of more than
100,000 since it was launched in March.
Apps offer practical help
Rosenfeldt, who lives in Copenhagen and works in digital marketing,
decided to create the app a year ago after joining a Facebook group of
like-minded Danes hoping to boycott U.S. goods.
“Many people were frustrated and thinking, ‘How do we actually do this
in practical terms,’” the 53-year-old recalled. “If you use a bar code
scanner, it’s difficult to see if a product is actually American or not,
if it’s Danish or not. And if you don’t know that, you can’t really make
a conscious choice.”
The latest version of “Made O’Meter” uses artificial intelligence to
identify and analyze several products at a time, then recommend similar
European-made alternatives. Users can set preferences, like “No
USA-owned brands” or “Only EU-based brands.” The app claims over 95%
accuracy.
“By using artificial intelligence, you can take an image of a product …
and it can make a deep dive to go out and find the correct information
about the product in many levels,” Rosenfeldt told The Associated Press
during a demonstration at a Copenhagen grocery store. “This way, you
have information that you can use to take decisions on what you think is
right.”
‘Losing an ally’
After an initial surge of downloads when the app was launched, usage
tailed off. Until last month, when Trump stepped up his rhetoric about
the need for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, a strategically important
and mineral-rich Arctic island that is a semiautonomous territory of
Denmark.
Usage peaked Jan. 23, when there were almost 40,000 scans in one day,
compared with 500 or so daily last summer. It has dropped back since but
there were still around 5,000 a day this week, said Rosenfeldt, who
noted “Made O’Meter” is used by over 20,000 people in Denmark but also
by people in Germany, Spain, Italy, even Venezuela.
“It’s become much more personal,” said Rosenfeldt, who spoke of “losing
an ally and a friend.”
Trump announced in January he would slap new tariffs on Denmark and
seven other European countries that opposed his takeover calls, only to
abruptly drop his threats after he said a “framework” for a deal over
access to mineral-rich Greenland was reached with NATO Secretary-General
Mark Rutte’s help. Few details of that agreement have emerged.
The U.S. began technical talks in late January to put together an Arctic
security deal with Denmark and Greenland, which say sovereignty is not
negotiable.
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Ian Rosenfeldt, the creator of "Made O'Meter" mobile app,
demonstrates how shoppers can use the application to identify and
boycott American goods in a grocery store in Copenhagen, Wednesday,
Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)
 Rosenfeldt knows such boycotts won’t
damage the U.S. economy, but hopes to send a message to supermarkets
and encourage greater reliance on European producers.
“Maybe we can send a signal and people will listen and we can make a
change,” he added.
The protest may be largely symbolic
Another Danish app, “NonUSA,” topped 100,000 downloads at the
beginning of February. One of its creators, 21-year-old Jonas Pipper,
said there were over 25,000 downloads Jan. 21, when 526 product
scans were performed in a minute at one point. Of the users, some
46,000 are in Denmark and around 10,000 in Germany.
“We noticed some users saying they felt like a little bit of the
pressure was lifted off them,” Pipper said. “They feel like they
kind of gained the power back in this situation.”
It's questionable whether such apps will have much practical effect.
Christina Gravert, an associate professor of economics at the
University of Copenhagen, said there are actually few U.S. products
on Danish grocery store shelves, “around 1 to 3%”. Nuts, wines and
candy, for example. But there is widespread use of American
technology in Denmark, from Apple iPhones to Microsoft Office tools.
“If you really want to have an impact, that’s where you should
start,” she said.
Even “Made O’Meter” and “NonUSA” are downloaded from Apple’s App
Store and Google’s Play Store.
Gravert, who specializes in behavioral economics, said such boycott
campaigns are usually short-lived and real change often requires an
organized effort rather than individual consumers.
“It can be interesting for big supermarket brands to say, OK, we’re
not going to carry these products anymore because consumers don’t
want to buy them,” she said. “If you think about large companies,
this might have some type of impact on the import (they) do.”
On a recent morning, shoppers leaving one Copenhagen grocery store
were divided.
“We do boycott, but we don’t know all the American goods. So, it’s
mostly the well-known trademarks,” said Morten Nielsen, 68, a
retired navy officer. “It’s a personal feeling … we feel we do
something, I know we are not doing very much."
“I love America, I love traveling in America,” said 63-year-old
retiree Charlotte Fuglsang. “I don’t think we should protest that
way.”
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