In fining Google a record 2.4 billion euros (2.7 billion
dollars) in June, 2017, for unfairly favoring its advertisers in its online
shopping service, E.U. officials went “significantly further than their
American counterparts.”[1]
At the time, Google held more than 90 percent of the online search market in
the E.U. Why would the E.U. go further than the U.S. in pressing anti-trust
violations against a technology company that could be expected to gain monopoly
profits? Presumably Google was favoring its advertisers on searches in the U.S.
as well. Americans would mind too when an advertiser’s higher-price product
comes up rather than a comparable product at a better deal. Was the E.U. more
interested in protecting consumers and less concerned about pleasing a large
company? The company’s sordid, self-serving practice nullifies any contending claim
that the government’s motive was to go after a foreign company. I submit that
the E.U. government’s action unwittingly points to a pro-business bias in the
corresponding American government.
The full essay is at "E.U. Goes After Google."
1. Mark Scott, “Google
Fined Record $2.7 Billion in E.U. Antitrust Ruling,” The New York Times, June 27, 2017.
