In a recent article from Deutsche Welle (DW), they describe how the European Union has come with an antitrust case against Google to the amount of fines of $2.6 billion (USD conversion). The European Union General Court in Brussels alleges that Google is unfairly using their Google Adsense advertisements across the internet to promote buying from Google's own price comparison marketplace, while giving a disadvantage to other smaller producers advertising on the same platform.
This is not the first time Google has been scrutinized in terms of violating other European Union antitrust laws. In 2018 the company was forced to pay €4.3 billion for abusing their market dominance in the mobile services industry.
Recently, Google has been able to convince the General Court to overturn one of the three fines, and is still battling on the other two. This has started a conversation regarding what types of changes must be made in a modern marketplace which has become dominated by tech giants. Is it up to Google to portray all advertisements and products in a fair and just manner, or could they continue to control their own service as they see fit, forcing others to adapt in their own ways to market their products effectively?
1 comment:
The reality of Google is, they are a monopoly around the globe. The United States has taken this in stride; they won the search engine race, and are now competitive with Microsoft in computers and their drive services. Google is essentially the private company you have to deal with in terms of advertising rights on the internet; fining them for self-promotion is admirable, but would you then do the same to Amazon? Amazon's website tells you exactly what the recommended product is to purchase. Should they be fined 2 billion dollars? It's not a direct comparison, but my point here is that I think the EU is attacking this the wrong way. They are punishing the industry leader instead of promoting growth of other services; more fines for these practices lead to a slippery slope that creates more barriers to entry in the industry. I am not opposed to slapping tech giants on the wrist; but it should be a symbiotic relationship. We cannot have control over them and get everything we want as consumers and citizens without conceding profits to one of the largest companies in the world. The EU has more pressing issues.
Post a Comment