Tech

EU Regulators Take Aim At Google Over Silicon Valley Giant’s Business Model

(REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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European Union regulators fined Google a hefty $1.7 billion Wednesday on the basis that the Silicon Valley giant violated various anti-trust laws, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Google engaged in “illegal practices” in a bid to “cement its dominant market position” in advertising markets, Margrethe Vestager, EU’s top competition commissioner, said in a press statement announcing the penalty. Additional criticisms and possible fines were still to come, she added.

Vestager has been a real headache for Google. She has now fined the tech giant more than $9 billion for antitrust violations.  U.S. regulators have so far avoided slapping fines on Google, though President Donald Trump flirted with the idea in November 2018. (RELATED: Trump’s Looking At Antitrust For Silicon Valley ‘Very Seriously’)

REUTERS/ Stephen Lam

A Google logo is seen at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., November 1, 2018. REUTERS/ Stephen Lam

Google has already made “a wide range of changes to our products to address the [European] Commission’s concerns,” Kent Walker, the company’s senior vice president of global affairs, said in a statement. Google has not yet disclosed whether it will consider appealing the E.U.’s decision.

Trump, for his part, has a long and sordid relationship with big tech, which he views as antithetical to conservative free expression. He told The Daily Caller in a 2018 interview that he believes Facebook and Google are interfering in the U.S. election on behalf of the Democratic Party.

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