Google has expressed itself with unusually clear tones about the EU. The billions in fines imposed are “quasi criminal”, as lawyers for the group explain. In addition, the EU would have analyzed the market situation and contracts incorrectly. However, Google should not be able to avoid the fine.
Google: High EU fine “almost criminal”
Lawyers for Google’s parent company Alphabet have accused the EU Commission of filing a lawsuit against Google “quasi criminal fine of very large proportions” to have imposed. In 2019, Google was fined 1.49 billion euros by the EU competition watchdog because competitors were disadvantaged in online advertising.
Apart from the amount of the fine, the lawyers before the General Court of the European Union accuse the EU procedure “major analysis error” in front. There is talk of “characterization errors” when evaluating individual clauses. Overall, the EU started from a completely wrong basis. According to the lawyers, Google feels limited in the free conduct of business (source: Bloomberg).
For Google, it could not stay with the current fine. There are currently three competitions in progress. Google could use the EU a total of 9 billion euros be asked to pay. According to EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Google’s market power must be restricted. According to a lawyer for the EU Commission, Google has an “extremely dominant position” in web searches.
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Digital Markets Act: EU with new opportunities
Things could get even trickier for Google after the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) is passed. The EU thus reserves the right to more extensive sanctions against tech companies. In addition to massive fines, in the worst case, even the splitting up of corporations threaten.