Google in crosshairs of European regulators; $4 billion fine could be just days away

“Europe may be a financial disaster and a faded military force, but in at least one arena it has emerged as champ: Regulators here are challenging the power of America’s technology titans. And they are winning,” Craig Timberg reports for The Washington Post.

“Google is most squarely in the crosshairs as its officials negotiate furiously in hopes of avoiding a $4 billion fine and a formal ruling that it has abused its dominance in the search market to hurt rivals across a range of industries,” Timberg reports. “A deal could be days away.”

Timberg reports, “Facebook, Apple and Microsoft also have faced serious scrutiny from European regulators in the past year. And even if Google succeeds in settling the sprawling antitrust case here, it is facing investigations into its new privacy policy and its Android operating system for phones and tablets. Many of these issues, including the antitrust case against Google, also have been investigated by American regulators. But the laws here are stricter, the fines bigger and the courts more supportive of aggressive government action — to the point that many experts say the legal landscape of the technology industry is being shaped more profoundly here than in the United States.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like Google needs to up their EU lobbying budget.

Related articles:
Google’s D.C. lobbyists have outspent Apple nearly 10 to 1 so far this year – July 23, 2012
Google to pay $22.5 million to settle charges over bypassing privacy settings of millions of Apple users – July 10, 2012

11 Comments

    1. Really Buster, did you not see Google’s quarter? They made a large increase in income. The only downside was a small loss at Motorola but that is sure to reverse with the success of the Nexus 7. Apple will report tomorrow after market closes. If as successful as Google and if the stock does not climb as Google then you would be justified in whining. But let us just wait huh? AAPL has outperformed GOOG for the last two years and should continue into the future. One week does not make a market my friend.

      1. How the heck does selling Nexus 7 at cost recover hundreds of million in net loss, let alone the 12 billion spend aquiring Moto?

        The rest of your post was great but that one glaringly bad part marred an otherwise great post.

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