European Commission fines Google €2.95B over abusive ad tech practices

Just a note, in case anyone thinks this is an insufficient punishment:

> The Commission has ordered Google (i) to bring these self-preferencing practices to an end; and (ii) to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. Google has now 60 days to inform the Commission about how it intends to do so.

It is on top of ordering them to fix the business practices. They can always issue more fines if Google doesn’t comply.

IMO some of us here want to see these companies hurt. That’s a non-goal for the EU, they are looking for compliance, not vengeance or something silly like that.

Why not both ? ;-)

Haha, yeah.

But they probably benefit from appearing steady, measured, and fair-minded.

the EU is the master of appearing steady, measured, and fair-minded

whilst being entirely fueled by both emotion and protectionism

I bet this move isn’t protectionist enough to actually scare Google away.

> Google has now 60 days

I hope I am wrong, and would be happy if that were the case, but I find these deadlines laughable. In reality Google will delay this in courts for at least 5 years. In which time they will make some extra billions, and then the fine will be cut to a quarter of the current value. And by then they will have invented a new way to abuse consumers, just different enough to be the object of a new investigation and new court case that also takes years.

Noncompliance fines from day 61, 62, … will start ticking regardless I assume?

Because the rule of law, specifically the principle of proportionality, does not allow us to penalize some entities only to hurt them. That might be something entertaining to see for many of us, but civilized societies typically limit the public power from being used in such a way.

They will until a court revises the decision. Google can request an "expedited decision" but even that will take some time that only stops the fines.