I wish they would add an additional 1 billion fine for AMP.
AMP is the best thing to happen to Android users, I vastly prefer sites that serve AMP content to ones that don't.
Why only to android? I thought it was an device agnostic technology?
European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
51–60 of 702 posts
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#52Unjust enrichment of disgusting bureaucrats. In this case, google did nothing wrong other than display what they want on their own site, and for that they have to pay their hard earned money to an undemocratic authoritarian commission. No thanks.
Yeah, no. The fine is not paid to any commission, it goes to the EU budget and is taken off from the amount member states (hence, citizens) have to pay for that year.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#53Not sure I get the logic here. Will they be fined next for showing the Google Maps embed (and street view) when you search for places nearby? What's the difference?
That's another case that's being worked on.
The preferred solution of the EU would be that there would be a standardized API between search engines and map providers, shopping providers, etc, and you could simply choose which map provider you'd want, and that'd be shown in every search engine.
This is still being discussed, of course, as no solution has been found yet, but in general the idea is based on Android's Intent system, where this concept works quite well.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#54Promoting your own product above competitors' is ok unless you're big. Ok, I get it. But I don't agree with it.
If you're the central promoter that both you and your competitors use to promote products, that's a conflict of interest.
You can self-promote whatever you want, as long as it's independent of others' promotions.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#55The press release is well written. It explains why Google is fined in an easy way to understand, covering most aspects; what is the problematic behavior, why it is considered as problematic, which data lead to this decision, etc, whilst not painting the company in a negative light. Opinions on the decision will sure differ among readers, but I think the decision is in place with the majority of EU citizens' consensus…
Absolutely. Next up, the Adsense and Android antitrust cases. How do I know? I googled it:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-google-antitrust-idUSKB...
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#56I tend to agree with the underlying judgment, yet the record-breaking fine seems disproportionate to the debatable degree of wrongdoing, compared to the Intel case, where the (obviously reprehensible) extortion of distributors etc. only led to a fine of about €1.06B.
The fines aren't made up arbitrary numbers, and the article is clear on that too.
"In accordance with the Commission's 2006 Guidelines on fines (see press release and MEMO), the fine has been calculated on the basis of the value of Google's revenue from its comparison shopping service in the 13 EEA countries concerned."
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#57The press release is well written. It explains why Google is fined in an easy way to understand, covering most aspects; what is the problematic behavior, why it is considered as problematic, which data lead to this decision, etc, whilst not painting the company in a negative light. Opinions on the decision will sure differ among readers, but I think the decision is in place with the majority of EU citizens' consensus…
I came to say exactly that. That's a very well written statement that clarifies the situation more than any news outlet I happened to read on the case.
As for the decision, it may seem unfair for Google, but the European commission has to look at the bigger picture: its search dominance is so big that it gives Google an unfair advantage when competing in other business sectors, driving others out of competition even if they have a much better product. That's not good for society in the long run
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#58what's stopping google from shutting up shop in the EU. would they have to block EU access? how much revenue do they make from EU clients?
Considering how big the EU market is I'm sure the profit Google derives from it is many times this judgement.
so EU can keep knocking on their door because google has no choice but to pay up?
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#59What would Google have to do to ignore this fine? If they cut any physical presence in the EU, would the EC have any way to enforce this fine? Put another way, if the EU tried to take money from some random e.g. American or Japanese company without a physical presence in the EU, what channels could the EU use to twist their arm across national boundaries? Somewhat related, there could be good money in providing an ex…
Google as assets in the EU, and Google has liabilities with EU banks.
The EU could simply seize Google's servers and intellectual property, and sell it to fund this.
Additionally, if you'd create a jurisdiction just to avoid the law, you can expect that no country will protect your copyright. You'd have the EU courts support every person stealing your IP.
You really don't want to pick a fight with a legal system that your entire business depends on.
Re: European Commission fines Google €2.42B for abusing dominance
#60Please enlighten me: What kind of monopoly would that be? Much as I detest an awful lot of Google, I have never once been - and know of noone else who has ever been - forced to use their search against my will. In fact, I get along fine without it, as well as without their analytics and their browser and their cloud stuff, excepting of course that I am often forced to correspond with gmail addresses.
Did you mean to reply to someone? The word monopoly doesn't appear in the press release.