Social Media: Google loses challenge against EU antitrust ruling, $2.8-billion fine

Google lost an appeal against a 2.42-billion-euro ($2.8-billion) antitrust decision on Wednesday, a major win for Europe’s competition chief in the first of three court rulings central to the EU push to regulate big tech.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined the world’s most popular internet search engine in 2017 over the use of its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.

Read more at: Google loses challenge against EU antitrust ruling, $2.8-billion fine - Metro US

Google sued by EU and US: Pre-election lawsuit against Google sets the stage for global action on tech giants

European Union regulators hit Google with a $1.68-billion US fine on Wednesday for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.

It's the third time the commission has slapped Google with an antitrust penalty, following multibillion-dollar fines resulting from separate probes into two other parts of the Silicon Valley giant's business.

The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe of Google's AdSense advertising business at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

Read more at: Pre-election lawsuit against Google sets the stage for global action on tech giants | CBC News

EU Versus Google: Brussels lashes a historical fine to Google for domain abuse with Android

EU Versus Google: Unfair Competition - Monopoly Position

Brussels launches its strongest offensive against Google. The European Commission is now ready a record fine for U.S. giant for abuse of dominant position through Android, its mobile operating system, which use virtually all less Apple manufacturers.

The technological signature requires brands that use this system default installation of ir own applications like Google search engine or Chrome browser.

This is one of practices that European authorities judge against competition and which worth greatest punishment imposed by an antimonopoly case (about 4 billion euros). The previous record was also reached by Google. The decision stresses even more already complex transatlantic relationship.

The sanction, according to sources close to the case, is around 4 billion, the largest ever imposed by the European Commission

The Android process is now completed, after several years of research, and decision is expected to be communicated on Wednesday, as country has been able to know. The European Commission was clear that it would close case before holidays, but had hesitated to impose sanction on American firm last week or this.

The level of confrontation reached with US President Donald Trump's visit to NATO summit in Brussels advised him to postpone fine. The Community executive has tried, at same time, to take away as much as possible this initiative from visit that President of this institution, Jean-Claude Juncker, will make to Trump next week in White House. Both institutions confirmed this Tuesday that meeting will be held on 25 July. However, effect it causes in spirit of American tycoon is uncertain.

The great technology has never been Trump's favorite sector, which was very close to former president, Barack Obama. The penalty for abuse of dominant position with Android will surpass 2.424 billion taxes in 2017 also to Google for systematically favoring Google Shopping, its service of comparison of prices.

The reason is that scope of Android case is much higher than price compared, since 90% of mobiles in Europe incorporate Android. And that quota has grown vertiginously in recent years.

Read more: Brussels last a historical fine to Google for domain abuse with Andr

EU: The Google Fine: Report: Google to appeal $2.7 billion EU fine

Google Fined by EU for abuse of market position in shopping searches

According to The Telegraph, Google is planning to file an appeal against the roughly $2.7 billion (€2.4 billion) antitrust fine imposed by the European Commission in June for abuse of market position in shopping search. The fine was the largest in EU history; the previous record fine was $1.3 billion against Intel.

Last week, Intel won a rare partial victory against EU antitrust regulators when the European Court of Justice instructed a lower court to re-examine its decision and take a closer look at the underlying facts and market impact of Intel’s behavior.

It’s not clear whether last week’s decision impacted Google’s thinking on whether or not to appeal (Google’s decision was likely made before last week). Though it will likely be in process for several years, an appeal makes sense because the company faces potential similar fines and demands for change around other types of “vertical search” results such as maps/local, travel and other categories.

Google is required to submit proposals for changes in its search results to bring them into compliance with EU rules. Google reportedly submitted its plan last month. It will be compelled to make those changes and live within them during the appeal process.

Read more: Report: Google to appeal $2.7 billion EU fine

Washington Post: Oracle-Sun Deal, Europeans Prove Tougher Than U.S. Regulators

For the complete report from the washingtonpost.com click on this link

Oracle-Sun Deal, Europeans Prove Tougher Than U.S. Regulators

After the Justice Department's approval last month of software giant Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, European regulators put up another obstacle to the merger. The European Commission said Thursday morning it launched an in-depth investigation into the merger to see whether Oracle was committed to developing Sun's rival open-source database software MySQL after the merger.

The European Commission's competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said in a release: "The Commission has to examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world's leading proprietary database company proposes to take over the world's leading open source database company. In particular, the Commission has an obligation to ensure that customers would not face reduced choice or higher prices as a result of this takeover.