Google Slapped With Hefty €2.95B Fine by European Commission

In a move that was expected, the European Commission announced on Friday that it had fined Google €2.95 billion, ignoring U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats.

Brussels accused the American tech giant of abusing its dominant market position by self-preferencing its ad exchange tool “AdX.” In 2023, the executive branch of the European Union (EU) had threatened to demand that the company break up some of its ad activities.

In August, Donald Trump warned that countries or organizations seeking to impose regulations on U.S. technology companies would face tariffs or export restrictions. While he did not explicitly mention the European Union, Brussels has the most comprehensive legislative framework for digital regulation. EU officials responded that they have the “sovereign right” to regulate the sector.

Google was quick to react, calling the European Commission’s latest decision on its AdTech services “wrong” and announcing plans to appeal. “The European Commission’s decision on Adtech services is wrong, and we will appeal. It imposes an unjustified fine and changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses, making it harder for them to earn revenue,” said Lee-Ann Mulholland, the company’s vice president for regulatory affairs.

The ruling marks the third fine imposed on Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, in the same week. In the United States, the company was ordered to pay $425.7 million to around 100 million users for privacy violations. On Thursday, France’s data protection authority (CNIL) levied a record €325 million penalty for unlawful use of cookies.

At the same time, Google scored a legal victory in the U.S. A court ruled that while the company must share its data with competitors to promote fairer competition, it will not be forced to sell its Chrome browser, as the U.S. government had sought.

Source: tovima.com