Google in EU Crosshairs Again With Advertising Antitrust Inquiry (reuters.com) 9
Google was in the EU antitrust spotlight again on Tuesday as regulators opened an investigation into whether its digital advertising business gives the Alphabet unit an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers. From a report: The European Union competition enforcer's move marks a new front against Google and follows more than 8 billion euros ($9.5 billion) in fines over the past decade for blocking rivals in online shopping, Android smartphones and online advertising. The European Commission said it would investigate whether Google distorts competition by restricting third party access to user data for advertising purposes on websites and apps, while reserving such data for its own use. "We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack," European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. Google generated $147 billion in revenue from online ads last year, more than any other company in the world, with ads including search, YouTube and Gmail accounting for the bulk of its overall sales and profits.
It must be summer (Score:2)
The other day there's an article about how Google (Alphabet) is becoming risk adverse and suffering as a big company. Here's your sign.
Re:Does the EU have any teeth? (Score:4, Informative)
I see these stories about the EU investigating such and such company (Often American Based) for Anti-Trust and Anti-Competitive actions. However I never see a story where said company actually had to pay a fine or change their actions.
For one thing US corporations aren't being particularly victimised in this regard regardless of what you'll hear on Fox News. The EU hands out fat fines to plenty EU corps too: https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Liste... [zxc.wiki]
Secondly, Google got handed one of the biggest EU fines ever: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] but apparently the executives at Google are gluttons for punishment.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Hey Google, cut the EU off, they'll come crawling back
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
As a EU citizen I very much welcome this: a EU market player will take in the void that Google will leave behind. This will mean more employment within the EU and less in the US. It will also mean that EU privacy rules and anti-monopoly rules will be respected. And it will mean the US will lose a significant amount of economic power.
Yes please, Google. Leave.
Re: Does the EU have any teeth? (Score:2)
They are not gluten just dont care. The fines mean nothing to their bottom line and current business practices make them a lot more money.
Nothing gonna change unless eu asks for like 140 billion that google made in last year as profits