The EU on Friday slapped Google with a massive 2.95 billion euros ($3.47 billion) antitrust fine for favoring its own advertising services, drawing a furious rebuke from President Donald Trump and a threat of fresh tariffs against Europe.
Google vowed to appeal the decision by the European Commission, which accused the US firm of distorting competition in the 27-nation bloc.
“Google abused its dominant position in adtech, harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behavior is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said.
Trump, who has threatened to go after Europe for its rules on the digital market and content policing, lashed out at the decision, which brings Google’s total EU liabilities to nearly 10 billion euros.
“Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it!” Trump said on his Truth Social network, a day after hosting top tech leaders including Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the White House.
“As I have said before, my Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” he added, warning that if the fine is confirmed, he will launch proceedings to impose tariffs as retaliation.
The dustup came as the EU is still waiting for the United States to make good on a promise to lower tariffs on cars under a trade deal agreed in July.
In its decision, Brussels ordered Google to end its “self-preferencing practices” and take steps to cease its inherent conflicts of interest.
“Google has 60 days to inform the Commission on how it plans to do so,” Ribera said.
“If it fails to propose a viable plan, the Commission will not hesitate to impose an appropriate remedy.”
She said that “at this stage, it appears that the only way for Google to end its conflict of interest effectively is with a structural remedy, such as selling some part of its adtech business.”
Google said the commission’s decision was wrong and it would appeal.
“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” said the firm’s global head of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland.
Advertising is Google’s financial bedrock. The firm’s parent company Alphabet in July reported quarterly profits of $28.2 billion, largely from ads.
In its decision, the commission noted that Google not only sells advertising on its own websites and apps, but also acts as an intermediary for firms wanting to place ads elsewhere to appear on mobile and computer screens.
The European Publishers Council, a media industry group that had filed a complaint over the practices probed by the EU, said a fine was not enough.
“Without strong and decisive enforcement, Google will simply write this off as a cost of business while consolidating its dominance in the AI era,” said its director Angela Mills Wade.
In a similar case, a US federal judge earlier this year decided against Google over its adtech practices. A trial to decide the remedies opens in Virginia on September 22.
Friday’s announcement marked the third fine announced in a week against the Alphabet-owned Google.
A US federal jury on Wednesday ordered Google to pay about $425 million for gathering information from smartphone app users even when people opted for privacy settings.
The same day, France’s data protection authority fined the search giant 325 million euros for failing to respect the law on internet cookies.
The group notched a major win, however, on Tuesday when a US judge rejected the American government’s demand that Google sell its Chrome web browser.
The landmark antitrust ruling, coming after Google was found to have illegally maintained monopolies in online search through exclusive distribution agreements, did, however, impose sweeping data sharing requirements to restore competition.
As the EU’s competition watchdog, the commission has hit Google with multiple fines in recent years.
It fined the online giant 4.1 billion euros in 2018 for abusing the market dominance of its Android operating system, and in 2017 slapped a 2.4 billion euos fine for anti-competitive practices in the price comparison market.
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© Agence France-Presse
