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Google loses fight against massive anti-trust fine · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is what It's all about. Google Search and Google
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Chrome pre installed on mobile phones. Back in twenty eighteen,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: European regulators argued the company abused the dominance of its
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Android operating system by requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre install
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: both Google programs. The result was the bloc's highest ever
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: antitrust find. Google appealed, saying the case was unfounded as
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: users were free to download rival apps and browsers.
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  Speaker 2: The Court Second Chamber hereby first dismisses the appeal, second
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  Speaker 2: orders Google LLC and Alphabet Inc. To bear their own
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  Speaker 2: costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission.
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  Speaker 1: The ruling means Google must now pay four point one
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  Speaker 1: two five billion euros. The high tech company has been
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  Speaker 1: in the crosshairs of the European Commission over several alleged
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  Speaker 1: antitrust practices. Last year, the Commission find Google nearly two
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: point five billion euros over anti competitive practices in its
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  Speaker 1: online advertising business. He regulators and now investigating other major
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  Speaker 1: high tech companies such as Apple and Facebook parent Meta.
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  Speaker 1: The cases have become a growing source of tension with Washington.
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  Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump has accused the European Union of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: unfairly targeting American tech firms and has threatened retaliatory tariffs.
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  Speaker 3: And Matthias Keuttmann is a leading expert on how governments
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  Speaker 3: regulate big tech. He's a professor for Innovation Theory and
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  Speaker 3: Philosophy of Law at the Institute for Theory and Future
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  Speaker 3: of Law at the University of Innsbruck. Thank you so
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  Speaker 3: much for joining us. How significant is this for you,
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  Speaker 3: not just for Google, but for the European Commission's entire
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  Speaker 3: approach to regulating big tech.
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  Speaker 4: It took quite some time for the ruling to be fine.
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  Speaker 4: The first fine is from twenty to eighteen. It's still
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  Speaker 4: an important step towards a more right spaced international order.
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  Speaker 4: Then again, we have to admit that anti trust finds
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  Speaker 4: are a last resort. A really good anti trust law
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  Speaker 4: usually works before markets are disrupted by an antitrust behavior.
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  Speaker 3: Google has argued that Android increased competition by making smartphones
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  Speaker 3: cheaper and allowing users to download rivals. Why do you
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  Speaker 3: think that the courts rejected.
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  Speaker 2: That argument.
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  Speaker 4: Because the facts don't make Google's case. If you look
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  Speaker 4: at the smartphone market, if you look at the browser market,
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  Speaker 4: if you look at the search engine markets, none of
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  Speaker 4: those markets are really competitive. Google has a very very
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  Speaker 4: hard case, you know, if it wants to convince regulators
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  Speaker 4: that it's helping competition in any of those markets, and
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  Speaker 4: we have similar cases in other jurisdictions. All in all,
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  Speaker 4: Google has racked up close to eleven billion euros in
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  Speaker 4: U fines in the last years for various anti trust infringements.
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  Speaker 4: So the argument that this is pro competitive behavior is
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  Speaker 4: a stands on rather rather weaklys.
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  Speaker 3: The EU has gone after Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon
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  Speaker 3: in previous antitrust cases. Is Europe genuinely leading the world
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  Speaker 3: on digital regulation and oversight or is it simply, you know,
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  Speaker 3: filling a vacuum left by other jurisdictions.
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  Speaker 4: A bit of both. It would be unfair to say that,
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  Speaker 4: you know, the rest of the world innovates and the
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  Speaker 4: EU regulates, but we are currently the only big jurisdiction
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  Speaker 4: that is providing sensible digital rules on digital markets, on
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  Speaker 4: digital services, in the anti trust field, on data, on
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  Speaker 4: data governance. So it has all upon the European Union
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  Speaker 4: to do what other jurisdictions haven't, namely, watch out that
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  Speaker 4: the big companies don't misuse their market power, that they
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  Speaker 4: don't use our data too much. I wish, you know
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  Speaker 4: that other jurisdictions did more, so Europe could be a
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  Speaker 4: bit more focused on on supporting innovation. But it falls
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  Speaker 4: upon the European Union to be the world's digital regulator,
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  Speaker 4: and it's doing a decent job in that. We've seen
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  Speaker 4: some political problems over the past when the Commission was
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  Speaker 4: reluctant to reluctant to to enforce European law because of
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  Speaker 4: pressures from the US government. But since the decision here
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  Speaker 4: is from a court that is not under political pressure,
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  Speaker 4: it was pretty clear that the law as applied made
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  Speaker 4: a lot of sense.
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  Speaker 3: Critics say that these huge finds become little more than
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  Speaker 3: just a cost of doing business for companies that are
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  Speaker 3: worth trillions of dollars. Do you think these penalties actually
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  Speaker 3: change corporate behavior?
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  Speaker 4: No, no, the penalties won't won't change corporate behavior. Let's
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  Speaker 4: say you earn two thousand euros a month, right, and
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  Speaker 4: it would be only two euros. You know, if you
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  Speaker 4: compare the fine to the market capitalization of Alphabet, which
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  Speaker 4: is at four point five trillion, which is basically the
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  Speaker 4: same as you know, Germany's a gross domestic product, so
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  Speaker 4: it is relatively little compared to the market capitalization. But
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  Speaker 4: it isn't actually about the fines. I think it is
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  Speaker 4: really more about the signal Europe says, you cannot, you know,
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  Speaker 4: walk over European citizens, about over European consumers.
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  Speaker 2: You have to respect our laws.
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  Speaker 4: And after all, if you listen to Google, they will
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  Speaker 4: tell you that after the first fine in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 4: they changed a lot of their business practices. So the
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  Speaker 4: fact that it took quite so long to you know,
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  Speaker 4: make this judgment final isn't actually changing any any business
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  Speaker 4: practices at the moment. But the knowledge that you could
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  Speaker 4: be fined already in twenty eighteen for the competitive business
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  Speaker 4: practices at least from twenty eighteen to now has already
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  Speaker 4: produced some real results. So there won't be any major
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  Speaker 4: changes in behavior now based on that judgment. But it's
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  Speaker 4: good still that we have it. And it's good because
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  Speaker 4: the big players know now that there is a real
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  Speaker 4: danger that judgments handed down will stick, even if it
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  Speaker 4: takes a couple of years for the courts to finally
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  Speaker 4: assess them and to make the judgment final.
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  Speaker 3: Mantia Scatman, thank you, pleasure