OK GOOGLE: HOW MUCH IS 2.4 BILLION EURO IN USD?

Berlaymont strikes Google with jaw – dropping fine

90 days. This is the timeframe for the digital giant Google to end what the European Commission believes is an illegal practice and an abuse of dominant position in the market.

Thanks to its overwhelming predominance as a search engine, the company pushed its own price comparing service, called Google Shopping, over its direct rivals.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager explained in a press conference how they came to this conclusion and the reasons for this record breaking anti-trust fine.

Miss Verstager was also clear on the fact that even though these are new markets, the Commission believes that the abuse of dominant position is the same as it always was, going so far as to call them “old fashion” methods.

Google told the press that it “respectfully disagrees” with the decision, but now the company can either go the Microsoft way and fight it out in court while risking to get additional fines after the 90 days period, which can get as high as 5% of the worldwide revenue per day; or comply and modify its algorithm, which they have never done on an involuntary basis.
 

Furthermore, this probe was just one of the anti-trust investigations pending on Google’s head. The most important at the moment is the one regarding their mobile operating system, Android. The mobile OS is particularly popular in Europe where it holds 80% of the market for smartphones and tablets. So, once again, Mountain View finds itself in a dominant position and is accused of promoting its own apps, much like Microsoft did with Internet Explorer. This investigation, still pending, could result in a fine as steep as 10% of the company global revenue, which translates to around 7 billion Euro.

Even if Google said they are going to fight it out, chances are the tech giant will just abide by the new rule to avoid spiraling the confrontation. There is plenty of material for the Commission to probe into, from the company tax arrangement, to the aforementioned Android case and many other possible investigations in other services like Google Maps, Google Trips or Google Local. The Silicon Valley giant is just too big of a target and, at the moment, Brussels wants to show its strength. The use of a heavy hand on this issue and the record-breaking fine, are meant to show two very clear messages: first of all that progress is welcome and beneficial, but must be regulated. It’s not acceptable to act on the market without restraints and, in a period of growing ferment over the current global market system, this is meant to showcase to the population the real value of the EU umbrella’s protection. The second point the Commission wanted to make is a dear one to them: who wants to trade in Europe, must abide by EU rules. Time will tell and the legal battle it’s going to be long and will probably last for years but, it seems, both sides are well equipped for it. Just to give an example, the amount of evidence that Margrethe Vestager will bring to the judges includes 5,2 Terabytes of search results data, which translates to 1,7 billion search queries, which would take a person alone 17 thousand years to read.