The European Commission imposed on Friday a fine of $3.47 billion (Sh448.6 billion) on search engine Google over abusive online advertising practices.
“Google abutilized its dominant position in ad-tech, harming publishers, advertisers, and consumers. This behaviour is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” EU competition chief Teresa Ribera stated.
The commission ordered the US tech giant to conclude its “self-preferencing practices” and take steps to stop “conflicts of interest” along the advertising technology supply chain.
The fine comes despite US President Donald Trump’s threats to sanction the EU should the 27-countest bloc issue regulations which affect large US tech companies, with the EU’s trade head pautilizing the sanctions, seemingly amid fear of US retaliation.
What did Google state about the fine?
The company stated the fine was “unjustified” and that it would appeal, labelling the decision “wrong.”
“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires modifys that will hurt thousands of European businesses by building it harder for them to create money,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global head of regulatory affairs, stated in a statement.
This is the third fine announced against Google within a week, with a US federal jury ordering on Tuesday the tech giant to pay $425 million (Sh54.95 billion) for collecting information from smartphones despite utilizers even when people opted for privacy settings.
France’s data protection authority, meanwhile, fined Google €325 million (Sh48.97 billion) on the same day for failing to respect the law on internet cookies.
Trump criticises fine as ‘discriminatory’ and ‘very unfair’
Trump was quick to condemn the fine, stateing Europe was “effectively taking money that would otherwise go to American investments and jobs.”
“Very unfair, and the American taxpayer will not stand for it! As I have stated before, my administration will not allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” Trump stated in a post on his own Truth Social platform.
The US president also condemned another EU fine on Apple, stateing the US computer giant “should obtain their money back”.
In April, the European Commission found Apple and Meta in breach of obligations under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), fining the two US companies $572 million (Sh73.94 billion) and €200 million (Sh30.15 billion) respectively.
Trump threatened fresh EU tariffs to “nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these taxpaying American companies”.
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