Key Takeaways
- Google faces another massive fine from the EU for violating antitrust laws, despite appeals since 2017.
- Google previously received a 2.4 billion euro fine for favoritism towards its shopping service.
- Apple also faced antitrust fines in the EU and both cases show evolving consumer awareness impacting tech giants with the fines surviving the appeals.
As one of the world’s biggest tech corporations, Google is no stranger to fines, lawsuits, and objections to its ways of conducting business. In recent years, market regulators and antitrust bodies have issued several fines and directed the company to allow more freedom for developers looking to process in-app purchases through third-party gateways. However, Google is now staring at another massive fine for a violation flagged back in 2017, despite efforts to appeal.
In 2017, the European Commission levied the biggest fine on a single company in an antitrust case, far exceeding US regulator penalties, when it ordered Google to cough up 2.4 billion euros (~$2.65 billion) for favoritism. Under EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s strong leadership, Google was found favoring its own shopping service by “abusing its market dominance as a search engine,” Vestager said, according to a Reuters report.
After a lower tribunal upheld the original decision in 2021, choosing to fine the tech conglomerate, Google appealed against it in the EU’s Court of Justice. Reuters today reported the judges ruled in favor of the penalty again, saying Google’s actions in a dominant position (as a search engine) “hindered competition” and harmed small businesses and consumers in the process, which is penalizable.
Apple is in a similar soup today
Interestingly, in 2016, just a year before holding Google accountable for its shopping service, Margrethe Vestager was serving as Ireland’s economy minister. In office, she put Apple in a similar soup, demanding Apple pay 13 billion euros (~$14.3 billion) in taxes due since the company received state aid.
Apple was quick to appeal the decision like Google did, but after a tumultuous eight years, the BBC reports Europe’s apex court has upheld the original instruction that the company pay the taxes due. It appears the day after the iPhone 16 launch isn’t one Apple or Google expected, at least from a regulatory standpoint.
Google alone faces 8.25 billion euros (~$9.1 billion) in outstanding fines for EU antitrust violations. Such amounts might be pocket change for both companies, but are a sign of evolving consumer awareness which could steer future business decisions these brands take internally.
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