Brussels fines Google €3 billion despite Trump's threats

BrusselsBrussels is going straight. Despite Donald Trump's threatsThe European Commission announced this Friday that it will fine Google €2.95 billion. According to some media reports, the EU executive had postponed this decision for fear of retaliation from the US president, who has yet to lower tariffs to the 15% rate agreed with the European Union. Ultimately, the European Commission will apply its regulations anyway and punish the US technology giant for violating EU competition and antitrust laws.

The EU executive accuses Google of distorting free competition by favoring its own advertising technology management services over other providers that offer the same services. Thus, Brussels orders the US company to put an end to these practices that seek to favor its own products and to implement measures to end the conflict of interest it faces throughout the online advertising supply chain.

In fact, Brussels is particularly complaining that Google controls the entire value chain of online advertising technology management. For this reason, it believes one of the most viable solutions is for the large technology company to sell part of that business.

The European Commission is now giving the large US technology company sixty days to respond and report on what measures it plans to take to address the illegalities of which Brussels accuses it. Alternatively, Google could also take this financial penalty to the European courts. On several occasions when the EU executive has imposed this type of sanction on large US technology companies, both parties have ended up in court.

Despite the fact that the postponement of the fine announcement raised a lot of controversy, the European Commission avoided holding a press conference this Friday to explain the case, as is customary. Instead, it limited itself to sending a statement from the vice president of the EU executive and head of Competition, the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera, in which she defended Brussels' decision against the tech giant. "Google's attitude violates the European Union's antitrust rules. It must present serious solutions to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails, we will not hesitate to impose strong solutions," Ribera said in a statement.

One of Brussels' highest fines.

Despite the tensions between the European Union and the United States, the European Commission has not backed down and has imposed one of the largest antitrust fines in its history. However, it is not the largest Brussels has imposed on the tech giant. In 2018, it imposed a €4 billion fine against Google Android. Previously, it had also fined Google Shopping €2.4 billion. In fact, according to EU sources, the European Commission has increased the final amount of the financial penalty announced this Tuesday by 60% for repeated violations of EU law.

This Friday's fine represents around 0.9% of the US company's annual international turnover, a much higher percentage than what is typically associated with other antitrust fines, according to EU sources. For example, the latest financial penalty imposed on Apple Music was €1.8 billion, representing 0.51% of its global turnover, and on Facebook Market Place, €797 million, representing around 0.65%.

In this way, Brussels has ignored Trump's threats to attack all those administrations that regulate large US technology companies, which make huge profits in the European Union. "I am warning countries with taxes or digital laws that if they do not eliminate them, I will impose additional tariffs on their exports or impose restrictions on the export of our technology," said the US president. However, the US justice system has also fined Google several times for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market.