France's competition watchdog on Monday fined Google 220 million euros ($267 million) for abusing its dominant market position for placing online ads, in the latest in a string of fines by European authorities adopting tougher stances against U.S. tech giants.
They declared 440m revenue in France in 2018 (EUR/USD, I don't know, just reading from other comments) - so a decent chunk of their revenue in this particular country.
Essex_boy
3:31 pm on Jun 7, 2021 (gmt 0)
About time
superclown2
9:26 pm on Jun 7, 2021 (gmt 0)
With revenues of about 180 Billion last year it represents around 0.14% of their income according to my schoolboy maths. It will take a lot of fines like these to upset a company that looks upon them as just another operating expense. Most other companies of course prefer to obey the law and avoid the fines in the first place.
tangor
11:17 pm on Jun 7, 2021 (gmt 0)
Wrist slap, yet, it is a wakeup in that "business as usual" will now be examined with a different lens.
Time will tell.
universenet
3:26 pm on Jun 8, 2021 (gmt 0)
Peanuts. They won't even notice it.
This is 1 year earning of google CEO Now he should not get pay for 1 year ?
goodoldweb
8:43 am on Jun 10, 2021 (gmt 0)
Good!
Hopefully will see this type fines in each and every country Google operate.
graeme_p
8:45 am on Jun 10, 2021 (gmt 0)
They declared 440m revenue in France in 2018 (EUR/USD, I don't know, just reading from other comments) - so a decent chunk of their revenue in this particular country.
The official number is misleading because they declare most of their french (and EU revenue and some other coutnries too AFAIK) revenue in Ireland (very low tax) and then pay most of that to offshore companies in places with even lower taxes.
Their declared sales in ireland are about 32bn Euros
Half a day's income. Big whoop. They will have to serve hamburgers for a day in the plex cafeteria.
kidder
1:11 am on Jun 21, 2021 (gmt 0)
Wonder how that revenue will be used..
JS_Harris
3:51 am on Jun 26, 2021 (gmt 0)
267 MILLION dollars is somewhere around 0.005% of Google's 56 BILLION+ quarterly revenue.
To Google that's like a person making 60k a year getting a $75 speeding ticket.
vivalasvegas
2:36 pm on Jun 29, 2021 (gmt 0)
267 MILLION dollars is somewhere around 0.005% of Google's 56 BILLION+ quarterly revenue.
I think it's about 0.5%, so not such a negligible amount.
iamlost
7:16 pm on Jun 29, 2021 (gmt 0)
You are a blood thirsty lot! :)
What I find interesting (and largely logical, sensible) is the EU’s approach generally (France’s specifically in this instance) with regard to regulation transgression: first, ease into whatever’s new, few cliffs for the not paying attention to fall over, initially lean towards benefit of doubt; second, get transgressors’ attention by a less than maximum fine and public outing of transgression. This puts the enterprise on notice and the public aware. third, allows ramping up subsequent sentences with minimal public pushback and judicial excuses.
A change in behaviour is seen as more important than punishment. The question being how many whacks with how big a stick is eventually required.
