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THE EU SLAPPED Google with a record €2.4 billion anti-trust fine today, in a fresh assault on a US tech giant that risks the wrath of President Donald Trump.
Hard-charging European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager said Google had “abused its market dominance” as the world’s most popular search engine to give illegal advantage to its own shopping service.
“What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate,” Vestager said in a statement.
“And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.”
The fine broke the previous EU record for a monopoly case against US chipmaker Intel of €1.06 billion.
The decision comes less than a year after Vestager issued with an order that iPhone manufacturer Apple repay €13 billion in back taxes in Ireland.
Crucially for Google, Brussels has demanded that the US tech giant change the business model for Google Shopping to meet the EU’s concerns.
While an EU record, the amount is below the maximum possible of about €8 billion or 10 percent of Google’s total revenue last year.
Brussels accuses Google of giving its own online service, Google Shopping, too much priority in search results to the detriment of other price comparison services, such as TripAdvisor and Expedia.
The case, launched in 2010, is one of three against Google and of several against blockbuster US companies including Starbucks, Apple, Amazon and McDonalds.
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Why exactly should google prioritise competitors for free? The others are lucky they are included in the searches at all!
@Rui Firmino:
If Google didn’t offer widespread search facility then it would have no search engine, a limited search directory is not much use. By artificially prioritising other Google services via the search engine they are being anti competitive. Its just like arguing what is wrong with Tesco, Dunnes and other supermarkets getting together and price fixing. It is anti competitive! This type of regulation protects the consumer
@Nick Allen: Not the same as price fixing. Not even close. Also, if I google “shopping” I don’t get Google Shopping on the top results. This is a load of b0llo0cks
@Nick Allen: How exactly are consumers protected by bumping Google shopping down the search rankings a bit?
@Rui Firmino:
Your argument is now that what the EU is saying is untrue. I have no idea whether it is or not but it is a completely different argument
@Ben McArthur:
It is not about bumping Google shopping down the list it is about bumping Google shopping up the list. It is using market dominance to provide false results
@Nick Allen: In what sense is one set of results generated by a Google algorithm “false” and another set of results generated by another Google algorithm “true”? It’s almost as if competition law is made up as we go along.
@Nick Allen: My argument is, they don’t prioritise themselves and if they did, it’s their own damn search engine! They can do what they like!
@Ben McArthur:
I do not know how Google are doing it or even if it is true that they are doing it. But the basis of the fine is that Google was giving an artificially high priority to their own organisations products i.e. Google shopping. Google search engine offers unbiased search results parts other than the clearly stated paid advertisement. From what the EU is saying Google was showing bias to their benefit.
@Rui Firmino:
“The EU accuses Alphabet ’s Google of unfairly steering traffic to shopping sites that pay for top placement on its search results pages …”
What do they expect Google to do? Everybody who uses Google search engine knows that is what they do. It’s not a secret.
Vestager hasn’t a clue!
@Nick Allen: But you’re trying to make the argument that this protects consumers. Yet you don’t know how it was done, don’t define “artificial” and don’t explain how consumers are misled by changes in search rankings. I know we all hate big business and all, but this seems a pretty flimsy basis for a €2B fine.
@David Murphey:
Google give preference to paid advertising which the clearly label. The EU is accusing Google of promoting preference to their shop and displaying it as a ‘standard search’ and not paid advertising.
They should pay it in 1 cent coins
@Diarmuid: Actually as it still less than metal stock price, approximately 0.7 cent worth metal in 1 cent.
@Meekus:
You do realise they are paying us? We are the EU, this goes into our budget.
The EU loves to fine American tech companies. Don’t like Google? Create your own. What a joke.
@Seth Cheffetz: There’s always Bing. lol
@Rui Firmino:
Bing is owned by a small US tech company called Microsoft
@Rui Firmino: Need me to call 999? You just got burned son!
@Nick Allen: Oh really? I had no idea…. It’s also useless and no one ever uses it.
@Rui Firmino:
See, you can learn something new everyday
@Meekus: Think again, beatch!
@Nick Allen: You absolute dimwit, do I really need to spell it out that that was sarcasm! Bloody hell!
@Rui Firmino:
So you actually need me to highlight to you that I was taking the mick :)
@Nick Allen: No need for your lies, Nick
@Rui Firmino:
You Sir are the dimwit
@Nick Allen: Lucky for me I don’t care about your opinion.
@Rui Firmino:
You are putting a lot of effort into trying to defend yourself. Funny considering you don’t care so much
@Seth Cheffetz: Hey Seth if your American tech companies want to play in our space, then follow our rules. There is a whole big bad world outside of the US of A ya know.
@Larry Fitzwell: maybe create something worthwhile on your own…. Oh wait, you can’t.
Like democracy perhaps? Created by our Greek neighbours. Oh wait… sorry, that’s not something you “use”.
P.s. Congratulations on creating “the Don” hilarious!!!
Alphabet/Google profit jumps 43% to $4.9 bn just last year, well worth ignoring the rules for the better a monopoly
Regulatory shakedowns have really nothing to do with protecting consumers. They are the modern equivalent of enforced tribute to the king, to remind the earls who is really in charge without changing the established order. It’s just a cost of doing big business, with a few percentage points to the lawyers.
@Ben McArthur:
Even if that is the reason behind them they still have the effect of protecting the consumer
@Ben McArthur: Put some more thought into what you are trying to say instead of scripting ridiculous analogies. Google are big enough to branch into any industry, if they keep promoting their products on Google search engine then it signals the end of competitiveness. Again, BAD NEWS FOR THE CONSUMER. Its not a difficult notion.
More money for Ireland as most of their money was made in Ireland.
@Oliver P. Dunne: You don’t get how fines work do you?
@Oliver P. Dunne:
Why would the money go to Ireland?
@Oliver P. Dunne: What on earth are you talking about?
@Oliver P. Dunne: Lucky for you there’s no fines for silly comments
@Oliver P. Dunne: Only pulling the leg but a lot like it??
@Oliver P. Dunne:
Nice backtrack
What is Trump going to do, tweet about it
@Mike O Connor:
He could implement tax measure to encourage US companies to have their money back in the US rather than in the EU
@Nick Allen: never going to happen, the Fed won’t allow 20% or more haircuts in corp tax
tiny fines bit like having one speed bump on all the roads in europe and as much use, they couldnt care less Revenue jumped 21 percent to $21.5 billion, the California tech giant said, reporting results that bested most analyst forecasts.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2016-07-alphabetgoogle-profit-bn.html#jCp
@Matthew O’Kane: Very interesting. Same as info from last week:
Google said Friday it would stop scanning the contents of Gmail users’ inboxes for ad targeting, moving to end a practice that has fueled privacy concerns since the free email service was launched.
A Google statement said Gmail users would still see “personalized” ads and marketing messages but these would be based on other data, which may include search queries or browsing habits.
Proof if proof was needed how the European union has lost its way…
Google get screwed for a bit of scuffling of their ad pages…..bankers bring countries to their knees and they quibble about match sticks and bond holders…..these guys are going to make the fall of the Roman Empire look like a viritable jamboree.
There’s always DuckDuckGo.Com by the way. They don’t, if you ever want to do a comparison.
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