Google has been fined by the European Union for breaking digital antitrust regulations, copping a $1.4 billion penalty over its Play app store and search.<\/p>\n
The European Union has hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros ($A1.4 billion) after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers towards its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.<\/p>\n
It was the latest major crackdown on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in reining in some of the world\u2019s largest companies from Silicon Valley to Beijing.<\/p>\n
The trust is broken<\/p>\n
Google had recently lost its appeal of a $US4.5 billion antitrust fine imposed for throttling competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system.<\/p>\n
The European Commission, the bloc\u2019s executive branch and highest antitrust enforcer, said it was acting in the interest of consumers after running an antitrust investigation of Google.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best products should succeed because they\u2019re better, not because they\u2019re owned by the company running the search engine.,\u201d said Teresa Ribera, the commission\u2019s Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.<\/p>\n
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By continuing, you agree to our\u00a0Terms & Conditions<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut.\u201d <\/p>\n Google\u2019s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, blasted the fine as \u201cproduct degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants\u201d that would have a negative effect on European businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n He said the EU\u2019s Digital Markets Act forced Google \u201cto strip away real-time search features Europeans love \u2013 like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants \u2013 and dismantle safety protections on Google Play\u201d.<\/p>\n Brussels vs Big Tech (and Trump?)<\/p>\n Brussels has ratcheted up the pressure on US and Chinese tech giants despite the risk of incurring the wrath of President Donald Trump, who has lashed out at the 27-nation bloc\u2019s digital regulations and vowed to retaliate if American tech companies are penalised.<\/p>\n The EU describes the world\u2019s seven tech giants \u2013 Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance \u2013 as \u201cgatekeepers\u201d that control access for consumers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the EU, businesses have the right to compete fairly. Gatekeepers have the obligation to ensure a level playing field and consumers the right to choose for cheaper alternative offers,\u201d European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Google has been fined by the European Union for breaking digital antitrust regulations, copping a $1.4 billion penalty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22366,3918,54187,39,40,4600,31872],"class_list":["post-106313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-aap","tag-big-tech","tag-contributor-post","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-google","tag-google-play"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}