Commission fines Google €890 million for breaches of the Digital Markets Act
ec.europa.eu
Today, the European Commission took two decisions finding non-compliance by Google with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for self-preferencing its own services on Google Search, and for putting in place restrictions on businesses to direct consumers to alternative, often cheaper, purchase channels on Google Play (steering). In this regard, the Commission issued Google a fine of €460 million and a fine of €430 million respectively.
  • y0kai [he/him]@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    8·
    1 month ago

    oh lovely, a fine amounting to 0.8% of their cash-on-hand. that’ll show 'em.

    edit to crowd source checking my shitty math:

    Google Cash-on-hand ≈ €111 billion Fine ≈ €900 million

    (900,000,000 / 111,000,000,000) * 100 = 0.8

    if I’m an idiot please be nice about it lmao

    • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      The real threat is what happens when Alphabet doesn’t comply with the ruling. This is a warning shot to make them behave.

      Google is required to comply with the Commission’s decisions within 60 days, otherwise it risks periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its total worldwide turnover.

      • y0kai [he/him]@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        that has no teeth when they can just pay the tiny fine.

        its like saying “you better pay me a dollar today or I’ll charge you $20 tomorrow!”

        google is like “lol here’s a dollar, we complied. also we earned $1000 working up this massive $1 fine. of course were paying on time, why would I want to put a late fee on my rounding error of a fine?”

        • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
          2·
          1 month ago

          The periodic penalty comes into play if Google does not change the crap they were sentenced for. Ultimately, what the EU wants is that Google plays by the rules.