After the European Commission fined Google €890 million on Thursday for violating the bloc’s Big Tech regulations, the US government retaliated against Brussels, claiming that the sentence jeopardizes the EU-US trade agreement.
After a two-year investigation into Google’s alleged unfair practices, including self-preferencing its own services in search results and treating app developers unfairly, the Commission announced the first fine against the company under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Washington, which sees the EU’s digital regulations as unfairly targeting American businesses and has frequently compared the fines to trade tariffs, was understandably incensed by the sanction.In a statement following the news, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, “This is in addition to two recent actions by the Commission under the Digital Markets Act that target Google’s Android operating system and Search services that pose serious risks for the privacy and security of users, represent a de facto forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and impose unreasonable financial penalties.
The senior US official claims that Google’s fines alone account for more than 2% of the EU’s budget, which is more than several of the bloc’s member states’ contributions.Greer continued, “The EU frequently says that it wants stability and predictability in our trading relationship, but these actions are creating enormous uncertainty for U.S. exports of goods and services to Europe.
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