European regulators fined Google 890 million euros for giving preferential treatment to its own services. The tech company that controls the search engine, the browser, the email, the maps, the phone operating system, and the video platform was apparently caught prioritizing its own products. Investigators worked around the clock to crack this case.
The fine represents roughly 0.3% of Google's annual revenue. That's the regulatory equivalent of asking Jeff Bezos to cover the appetizers. The EU called this a "landmark" enforcement action under their new digital law, which is bureaucrat-speak for we wrote 47,000 pages of regulations and finally found someone to fine.
Google will appeal. The appeal will take six years. By then the fine will be negotiated down to 200 million euros and a poorly worded apology letter. The EU will declare victory. Google will continue doing exactly what it was doing. Retail traders will somehow find a way to lose money on this news despite Google not being a European company.
The preferential treatment allegation centers on Google favoring its own shopping results over competitors. Competitors filed complaints after discovering that being the eighth result on page three doesn't drive traffic. Revolutionary stuff. These same competitors spent decades optimizing for an algorithm owned by their direct competitor and seem genuinely surprised the house always wins.
EU regulators have now fined Google over 8 billion euros in the past decade. Google's market cap has increased by over a trillion dollars in that same period. Really putting the screws to them.
The fine will be paid in six to eighteen months after the standard appeals process. Google executives will attend a hearing, express disappointment, and promise to review their practices. Then they'll return to Mountain View and prioritize Google Shopping even harder out of spite.
Somewhere a day trader just bought GOOGL calls because he thinks billion-dollar fines are bullish.
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