The European Commission announced Friday that it had issued a €2.95 billion fine, equivalent to nearly $3.5 billion, to Big Tech giant Google, stating that the company had violated European Union antitrust law with its adtech business.
The bloc’s antitrust watchdog said Google “abused its dominant position in adtech” by “favoring its own online display advertising technology services,” and thus “distorting competition” throughout the industry. The European Commission has previously handed down hefty fines to Google, but this is the second-largest fine the bloc’s antitrust arm has ever assigned. Google was also responsible for the highest-ever fine.
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In addition to the fine, Google is expected to bring its practices and business into compliance with EU regulations. It has 60 days to propose how it might do so, and 30 additional days to implement its plans.
Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition, said regulators’ decision shows that large companies aren’t above the law.
“Google must now come forward with a serious remedy to address its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose strong remedies. Digital markets exist to serve people and must be grounded in trust and fairness. And when markets fail, public institutions must act to prevent dominant players from abusing their power,” Ribera said in a statement. “True freedom means a level playing field, where everyone competes on equal terms and citizens have a genuine right to choose.”
The European Publishers Council, which brought the complaint that ultimately resulted in the fine and necessary reform measures, said the fine could encourage poor behavior from Big Tech companies going forward.
“A fine will not fix Google’s abuse of its adtech. Strong and decisive action by Google to end illegal practices will be crucial, as Google will simply write off the fine as a cost of business,” Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the EPC, said in a statement.
For its part, Google has made it loud and clear that it plans to appeal. In an emailed statement, Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president, global head of regulatory affairs at Google, called the Commission’s decision “wrong” and “unjustified.”
“There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before,” Mulholland said in the statement.
The Commission was originally expected to hand down the fine earlier in the week, but EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic asked antitrust regulators to hold their decision, fearing that Trump would take his frustration out on a pending automotive tariff deal between the bloc and the U.S.
Trump has previously noted that he takes issue with the way the EU regulates technology and the digital realm. Reportedly, a final deal between the U.S. and the EU was held up over Trump’s distaste for the stringency of the Digital Services Act, a regulation that aims to make the internet safer and more transparent for EU citizens and consumers.
The president once again showed his contempt for the EU’s enforcement of its antitrust regulations, taking to Truth Social to express his frustrations. He called the fine “discriminatory” and said that, in fining Google, the EU is “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American Investments and Jobs.”
Trump said he would consider launching a Section 301 investigation against the EU in retaliation for the fine against Google.
“We cannot let this happen to brilliant and unprecedented American Ingenuity and, if it does, I will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies,” Trump wrote on his Truth account Friday.
Section 301 is also known as the Relief from Unfair Trade Practices clause of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974; it allows the president to implement retaliatory trade actions and tariffs, withdraw certain trade agreements or concessions and more. That would be a blow to EU regulators, who fought for the lowest-possible tariff on items imported into the U.S. from the EU.
That the most recent fine against Google is but one in a string of fines from EU competition regulators didn’t escape Trump’s gaze. In a follow-on Truth Social post Friday, the president noted that Google has paid billions of dollars’ worth of fines to the EU in the past.
“How crazy is that? The European Union must stop this practice against American Companies, IMMEDIATELY!”
