The Guardian journalist who targeted the Free Speech Union with a story stuffed with misinformation, Aisha Down, is a "Senior Tarbell Fellow". Charlotte Gill investigates what that means.
The post The Guardian Journalist Who Targeted the Free Speech Union is a “Senior Tarbell Fellow”. What Does That Mean? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The European Union is at it again and, as usual, taking direct aim at GREAT American Companies! After having fined Apple, for no reason at all, 15 Billion Dollars, Meta, 3 Billion Dollars, Amazon 2.5 Billion Dollars, and many others, we have just been informed that Google, a truly advanced and amazing group, has been fined yet another 1 Billion Dollars, without explanation. This brings the Google total to over 18 Billion Dollars! This illegal and highly discriminatory practice started at these high levels during the first year of the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration, but it's not going to continue during the Trump Administration. The United States of America is not a "PIGGYBANK" for Europe, nor will we allow it to be! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that we will immediately initiate a 301 Investigation into the practice of "ROBBING" American Companies and, in turn, the American Taxpayer. The European Union will pay a very big price for this illegal and highly unethical conduct, which I have consistently warned them about. The penalties will be entirely reversed and, we anticipate, a substantial TARIFF to be placed on them at the earliest possible moment.
Google was today fined €890 million ($1 billion) by the European Union for breaching antitrust rules with regard to its search and Google Play store services.
The European Commission found that Google had broken the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by using its dominant position in the search market to favour its own services, like shopping and hotel deals, over those of rivals.
The Commission also said that the company had abused its position by preventing developers from directing users to cheaper ways to buy apps and app subscriptions on websites and alternative app stores.
The Commission noted that Google has begun testing changes to how its own services are placed in search results and rolled out changes to its steering terms, which the EU’s main executive body described as substantial progress towards compliance.
“Google has fallen short of effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and today we have taken decisive yet balanced enforcement action sanctioning these breaches,” said Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.
“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut.”
With search, Google is required to share with competitors — search engines and AI chatbots alike — a massive amount of user data from Google Search user interactions. What terms people search for, what they click on in results, what languages and devices they use. It’s all ostensibly anonymized but that’s tricky when it comes to search terms. A lot of the terms people type into web search fields are to some degree personally identifying. The EC seems to be saying it’s Google’s problem to filter out things like passwords and usernames and omit them from the shared datasets. Google can charge money for this access, but only under “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND)” prices, based on a Commission-defined methodology.
Previously:
Update (2026-07-27): John Gruber:
So if you search for the score of a sporting event, it’s illegal in the EU for Google to show you the score, like this search I just tried. What the EC is saying is that because Google Search is so popular, it’s no longer allowed to improve.
It drives me insane when in Europe the link between Google Search and Google Maps is broken and I often have to copy paste an address between the two. Thanks EU, what if I like Google’s integrations?
They could have simply added a selector when a user first clicks on the maps preview in the search result, and then remembered it on device or across that user’s account.
But of course, then the user could choose a competitor’s product and Google would have to honor it. That would be horrible, so instead they just made the user experience worse for everyone and elegantly made people blame the EU.
See also: Hacker News.
Ryan Whitwam (PDF, Reddit):
Back in 2018, Google was handed a record-setting 4.34 billion-euro ($4.9 billion) fine in Europe for abusing its monopoly on Android. The company has spent the intervening years challenging that decision, but the continent’s highest court has put a stop to that. The Court of Justice of the European Union has affirmed the penalty, meaning Google is out of options.
[…]
The EU took issue with Google search and Chrome being the default options on Android. Even devices made by other companies, such as Samsung and Xiaomi, include Google apps as the default per the Android licensing agreement, giving Google an unfair advantage, according to European antitrust regulators. This is not to be confused with a 2.95 billion euro ($3.45 billion) fine against Google’s advertising monopoly issued by the European Union last year.
In 2022, a lower EU court reduced the fine to the current 4.1 billion euros from 4.34 billion euros previously.
Google has argued that the Android operating system provides choice for users and supports developers and businesses across Europe.
Via John Gruber:
Google last year booked $132 billion in profit; this fine is about 3 percent of that..
[…]
There’s never a reason not to string the appeal process out, but it’s especially true when your profits are growing at an exceptional rate. By growing their profits around 5×, they’ve reduced the relative sting of this fine by 5×
Previously:
Firm told to treat third-party services that appear in its results in ‘fair and non-discriminatory manner’
Google has been fined a total of €890m (£760m) by the EU for breaches of online competition laws by its search and app store services.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Google had broken the Digital Markets Act by giving priority to its own services, such as shopping and hotel deals, in search results over those of its rivals.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters
© Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters
© Photograph: Steve Marcus/Reuters
A group of 25 U.S. lawmakers has sent a letter to President Trump calling on his administration to confront the European Union’s digital regulations, which they describe as discriminatory policies aimed at American technology giants.
In the letter, obtained by Reuters, the Republican lawmakers – including key members of the House trade subcommittee – urged the president to consider launching Section 301 investigations under U.S. trade law. Such probes could pave the way for tariffs or other retaliatory measures against the EU if talks fail to resolve the issues.
The central target of the complaint is the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which designates major U.S. companies – including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Booking Holdings – as “gatekeepers” subject to strict behavioral rules. Lawmakers argue the rules unfairly burden American firms while sparing European and Chinese competitors.
Key concerns raised in the letter:
• Cloud services: The likely inclusion of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s cloud business under DMA oversight would impose “unprecedented regulatory burdens” not faced by European or Chinese rivals.
• Google fines: An expected European Commission fine against Google this week for alleged DMA violations ignores the company’s significant changes to its search services.
• Inconsistent enforcement: Apple, Meta, and Amazon have been labeled gatekeepers based on user numbers in Europe, while Chinese platforms like Temu and AliExpress have been excluded.
“We write to bring to your attention the many ways the EU continues to pursue anti-competitive acts, policies, and practices as a tool of economic extraction and regulatory coercion against American firms,” the letter states. It warns that EU access to the U.S. market “is not guaranteed” if the discriminatory practices continue.
The pressure on the issue predates Trump’s return to the White House. In October 2024, even before the election, Apple CEO Tim Cook personally called then-candidate Trump to voice concerns over EU fines and regulations affecting the company, including the Digital Markets Act and a major tax ruling. Trump later publicly referenced the call, signaling his willingness to push back against what he viewed as unfair European penalties on U.S. firms.
The European Commission has not yet responded to the letter. It maintains that its rules apply neutrally to promote fair competition and do not single out any country.
This latest congressional push aligns with President Trump’s long-standing criticism of EU digital policies and could signal a more aggressive U.S. trade posture toward Brussels in the coming months. Lawmakers emphasized that dialogue should be attempted first, but “all available tools” – including tariffs – remain on the table if needed.
The move highlights ongoing transatlantic tensions over technology regulation, data privacy, and market access that have persisted for years and are now poised to test the new Trump administration’s approach to international trade.
MacDailyNews Take: Good. The DMA does far more harm than good.
The European Union arose because the Europeans couldn’t compete on their own with the rest of the world, so they each lined up to surrender their national sovereignty, unique cultures, and dignity for an undemocratic, opaque, wasteful, bloated, bureaucratic quasi-governmental blob – and, even with the EU’s thumbs all over the scale, they still can’t compete. – MacDailyNews, March 4, 2024
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