The EU imposes a billion-dollar punishment on Google

The European Commission imposed a fine of EUR 2.95 billion on a subsidiary Alphabet, Google, for violating competition rules in the advertising industry. The Brussels-based Authority stated that the US company favoured its own net advertising services to the detriment of competing suppliers.

The Commission’s investigation showed that Google has a dominant marketplace position in its products. The company has abused this position since 2014 to guarantee itself an advantage in terms of its own products. In doing so, Google violated Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Google should adjust its business model

According to the Brussels office, Google’s business model creates a conflict of interest: the technology company places advertising on its own, but at the same time mediated between advertisers and online advertisers. The company operates its own brokering platform in providing advertising space. The European Commission now calls on Google to halt favouring itself.

It is unclear whether the penalties imposed by the Commission will besides have political consequences. president of the United States Donald Trump He has late threatened the countries he believes are attacking American technology companies with additional duties. He focused on digital regulation, which he criticised.

Trump did not explicitly mention the EU or individual associate States. However, the U.S. government has long been demanding changes to EU's strict digital rules, which aim to prevent, for example, disinformation from spreading through platforms specified as X, and will besides affect companies specified as Amazon, Apple, Meta ( Facebook ), Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft .