Google fined £3.8BILLION by the EU – and it’ll take just 14 days to pay off
The tech giant has been hit with a major regulatory smackdown – receiving the biggest fine ever handed down by the EU
GOOGLE has been fined a whopping 4.3billion Euro (£3.8billion) by the EU as part of a major investigation into the firm.
The fine is related to Google's abuse of its Android mobile phone software to get a leg-up over rivals, with the EU saying Google acted illegally.
The European Commission confirmed the record fine at noon on Wednesday.
It's the biggest fine ever imposed by EU for an antitrust penalty – beating last year's 2.3billion Euro fine (also against Google).
But it's unlikely to hurt Google too much, given that the company is worth around £645billion right now.
And the company pulled in £24billion in the first three months of this year alone.
That means it takes Google just 14 days of work to rack up enough cash to pay off the £3.8billion fine.
Nevertheless, Google told The Sun it now plans to appeal the EU's decision.
What did Google do wrong?
The EU is investigating Google on a host of charges around dodgy corporate behaviour.
But this specific fine relates to an anti-trust investigation around Google's Android software.
Like Apple's iOS, Android is simply computer code that powers smartphones.
But unlike Apple, Google lends its Android software out to other phone makers, who load it onto their own devices.
The problem is that Google contracts force these Android phone makers to take on Google services.
If you want to use Google's Play app store, you'll need to also install Google's search and browser apps (and other services, too) on the phone.
Anti-trust investigators believe this allowed Google to abuse its market dominance in mobile phones to promote its other services.
After all, latest figures suggest that 76.99% of smartphones in the world run on Google's Android software.
That's compared to just 18.91% for Apple's iOS, and 0.47% for Microsoft's Windows.
"A competitive mobile internet sector is increasingly important for consumers and businesses in Europe," said EU competition boss Margrethe Vestager, when she announced the charges back in 2016.
"We believe that Google’s behaviour denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players."
Following the fine's confirmation, a Google spokesperson told The Sun: "Android has created more choice for everyone, not less.
"A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation, and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition.
"We will appeal the Commission’s decision."
Why is the EU's proposed fine so huge?
Part of the problem with tech giants is that they work across almost every country on Earth, and are generally ludicrously rich.
So punishing firms like Google, which seemingly engage in lots of rogue practices, is tricky.
But the European Commission has the power to hand down devastating fines that can actually hurt big businesses.
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The EU's fines are tied to revenue, and can't exceed 10% of a company's annual turnover.
For firms like Google (which has a huge turnover), the penalties can be staggering.
Google will certainly have benefited greatly from its abuse of market dominance, so the fine needs to be very heavy.
But as we've already pointed out, Google can generate the £3.8billion fine in about 14 days' worth of work.
Do you think this fine is harsh enough? Or do you think the fine isn't even justified? Let us know in the comments!
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