Trump threatens EU will pay ‘big price’ after Brussels fines Google $1bn - Al Jazeera

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that United States President Donald Trump threatened the European Union with steep tariffs and a possible trade investigation after the European Commission fined Google $1bn for alleged antitrust breaches. The fine, announced by Brussels on Thursday, centres on claims that Google gave its own services an unfair advantage in search results and limited app developers’ ability to direct users to offers outside Google’s Play Store.

According to the report, Trump denounced EU penalties against Google and other US technology companies as discriminatory, saying on Friday that Europe would “pay a very big price” and that the US was not a “piggybank” for the bloc. He also raised the prospect of using a Section 301 investigation, a US trade mechanism for examining alleged unfair practices, which can lead to tariffs.

The European Commission said Google’s conduct violated the Digital Markets Act and gave the company 60 days to change its practices or risk recurring fines of up to 5 percent of average daily turnover. Al Jazeera reported that the penalty was divided roughly between the search-related findings and the Play Store restrictions. EU competition official Teresa Ribera defended the decision as measured, while Google executive Kent Walker argued the ruling would weaken its products and was driven by a small group of complainants.

The case matters because it adds pressure to already sensitive US-EU trade relations. Al Jazeera noted that Washington and Brussels had recently appeared to reduce tensions through a trade arrangement reached in Turnberry, Scotland, last year, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer warned that the EU’s approach to American tech firms could put that deal at risk.