Google slapped with largest fine to date
By Ryan Noik 18 July 2018 | Categories: newsA whopping $5 billion. That is the amount that the EU is looking at slapping Google with for what it deems as antitrust behavior with regards to its Play store on Google devices. This follows the story last week, with the EU debating exactly what to do with the tech behemoth.
To recap, Google found itself in hot water for requiring Android users to install its Search and Chrome apps in order to avail themselves of the Play Store. The requirement was found to violate anti-trust laws and give Google an unfair monopoly.
Last week though, the exact amount of the fine was unknown. Even for an organization of Google’s magnitude, five billion dollars is certainly no slap on the wrist, almost double that of the $2.7 billion fine that Google had to pony up last year for manipulating search results. Indeed, according to the Wall Street Journal, the fine would gobble up 40% of the company’s $12.6 billion profit for 2017.
Even more significantly though, it would likely mean that the European Union will have Google under a magnifying glass for the foreseeable future. That is certainly not an outcome any tech company could relish, especially as the European Commision is famous for looking dimly on tech companies that it believes have acted in an anti-competitive manner and slapping heavy fines on those found guilty.
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