The European Commission today fined Google €2.95 billion for abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology market, despite the threat of trade retribution from U.S President Donald Trump.
The American tech giant is alleged to have distorted the market for online ads by favoring its own services to the detriment of competitors, advertisers and online publishers, the EU executive said in a press release.
The search firm’s ownership of various parts of the digital ads ecosystem — including the software that both advertisers and publishers use to buy online ads — creates “inherent conflicts of interest,” according to the Commission.
“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,” said European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera in a statement.
The Commission had originally intended to deliver the fine Monday, before Brussels’ trade czar Maroš Šefčovič intervened to halt the decision amid continued tariff threats from Trump.
The White House has used massive tariffs and the threat of trade retribution to cow foreign countries and institutions since Trump returned to office in January.
Google now has until early November — or 60 days — to tell the Commission how it intends to resolve that conflict of interest and to remedy the alleged abuse.
The Commission said it would not rule out a structural divestiture of Google’s adtech assets — but it “first wishes to hear and assess Google’s proposal.”
In 2023, the Commission issued a charge sheet to Google in which it concluded that a mandatory divestment by the internet search behemoth of part of its adtech operations might be the only way to effectively prevent the firm from favoring its own services in the future.
The Commission’s multibilllion euro fine falls short of the €4.34 billion fine the EU executive slapped on Google in 2018 over abuse of dominance related to Android mobile devices, but is higher than the €2.42 billion fine the firm faced for favoring its own comparison-shopping service in 2017.
The Commission’s decision comes as a parallel case before the U.S. courts will soon come to trial.
In April, a U.S. federal judge found that Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in display search advertising, and a trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.
The U.S. government is seeking a divestment of Google’s assets in that trial.
In a statement, Google’s Global Head of Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said that the firm will appeal the Commission’s decision.
“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” said Mulholland.
This story has been updated.
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