European Union fines Google nearly €3 billion despite Trump's threats

The European executive considered that the American tech giant had abused its dominant position in the online advertising sector.

This sanction, which Google immediately announced it would contest, was highly anticipated.

The Commission had threatened in 2023 to require the splitting of part of the group's activities in this area of ​​online advertising (or "Adtech"), which it has not ultimately decided to do at this stage.

The announcement of this sanction against the American giant had been delayed at the beginning of the week, against a backdrop of tensions between the EU and the United States, as a source within the Commission confirmed to AFP on Wednesday.

On August 26, Donald Trump vigorously attacked countries and organizations regulating the tech sector, threatening them with customs duties and export restrictions.

Although he did not directly cite the European Union, it has the most powerful legal arsenal in the world for regulating digital technology, fueling debates in Europe on the risk of reprisals in the event of sanctions against American companies.

The EU had retorted that it had the "sovereign right" to regulate tech.

"Unjustified"

In a statement to AFP, Google criticized the Commission's sanction.

"The European Commission's decision on our adtech services is wrong, and we will appeal it. It imposes an unjustified fine and changes that will harm thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money," said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs.

This is the third fine issued this week against Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet.

The group was ordered Wednesday in the United States to pay $425.7 million in damages to nearly 100 million users for invasion of their privacy, according to a decision by a jury in a federal court in San Francisco, which was upheld by the American giant.

And on the same day, it was fined a record €325 million by the French data protection authority (CNIL) for breaches relating to advertising and cookies.

A split not ruled out

On the other hand, the group won a major legal victory on Tuesday in the United States: a Washington judge imposed strict requirements on the sharing of data in order to restore fairness in competition in online search, but without forcing it to sell its flagship Chrome browser, as demanded by the American government.

In the Adtech case, which it has been investigating since 2021, the Commission has also decided against imposing a split of Google's activities for the time being. However, it has not ruled out resorting to this option if the group's commitments to address competition concerns are not acceptable. In its decision announced Friday, it gave the group 60 days to respond on this point.

"If it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong corrective measures," said European Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera.

In a statement, the European Publishers' Council (EPC), an organization representing the interests of several European press publishers including The Guardian, Alex Springer and Rossel, which initiated the EU investigation, said that only a sale could put an end to the obstacles to competition committed by Google.

This is not the first time that the Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, has imposed a sanction on the group based in Mountain View, Silicon Valley.

It fined it €4.1 billion in 2018 for abusing its dominant position in the Android operating system, and another €2.4 billion in 2017 for anti-competitive practices in the price comparison market.

Google will also face a similar reckoning in the United States soon. In a case filed in a Virginia federal court in January 2023, the Department of Justice accuses the tech giant of creating a monopoly on digital advertising through strategic acquisitions and anticompetitive practices.