Why are fines raining down on Google?
In the space of a week, the Mountain View giant has received three fines: one in France and one in the United States for privacy-related reasons, but the heaviest (€2.95 billion) comes from the EU, for abusive practices in the online advertising technology sector. All the details
Small joys, but also (and above all) sorrows for Google.
The week had started well for the Mountain View giant: Shares of Alphabet (Google's parent company) jumped 9% on September 2, in the wake of U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta's ruling that the tech giant can keep the Chrome browser but must forgo exclusivity contracts. Not having to sell Chrome is a major victory for Google in the landmark antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against the company in 2020 , Axios commented.
Big G can therefore breathe a sigh of relief, even though trouble is not lacking: on September 3, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) struck hard with an unprecedented fine against the search giant. The authority imposed a record fine of €325 million on Google, accusing the giant of non-consensual advertising on Gmail. Not only that, but also on September 3, a jury in a federal court in San Francisco ruled that Google must pay $425 million for violating user privacy by continuing to collect data from millions of users who had disabled a tracking feature in their Google account.
As they say, all good things come in threes: on Friday, September 5, the European Commission fined Google €2.95 billion for abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology market.
The fine, the fourth penalty Google has faced in its decade-long fight with EU competition regulators, comes at a time of escalating trade tensions between major global powers and threats of retaliation from the United States over EU scrutiny of American tech companies, Reuters notes.
All the details.
FINE FOR VIOLATION OF PRIVACY IN THE USA
A federal court in San Francisco has ordered Google to pay $425.7 million in damages to nearly 100 million users for privacy violations, according to U.S. press reports. The jury found the company liable for continuing to collect personal data despite users having disabled the tracking feature.
The class action lawsuit alleges that Google "illegally accessed their devices and data, including app activity data on their mobile devices," in violation of the privacy safeguards provided by the tech giant's Web & App Activity settings. Users sought $31 billion in damages in the case filed in July 2020, which involved approximately 98 million Google users and 174 million devices.
The jury found Google liable for two of the three privacy claims filed by the plaintiffs.
READY TO FILE APPEAL BIG G
The tech giant will appeal the ruling, a Google spokesperson said in a press release. "This decision misunderstands how our products work," said Google spokesperson José Castaneda. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they opt out of personalization, we respect that choice."
ALSO A FRENCH FINE FOR ALPHABET
And it doesn't end there. Also on Wednesday, the French National Commission for Information Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) announced it had fined Alphabet €325 million ($381 million) for improperly displaying ads to Gmail users and using cookies, both without the consent of Google account users.
The French data protection authority has therefore given the company six months to ensure that ads are no longer displayed in Gmail users' inboxes without prior consent and that users provide valid consent to the creation of a Google account for the placement of advertising trackers. Otherwise, Google and its Irish subsidiary will both be fined €100,000 for each day of delay, the CNIL stated in a statement.
THE BILLION-DOLLAR BLOW FROM BRUSSELS
But the heaviest fine, the third in just three days, arrived on September 5th from the European Antitrust Authority.
The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion for violating antitrust rules, accusing it of distorting competition in the digital advertising technology sector. According to a statement, Brussels has ordered the Mountain View giant to cease its self-preferential practices and adopt measures to eliminate conflicts of interest throughout the adtech supply chain.
The American tech giant allegedly distorted the online advertising market by favoring its own services to the detriment of competitors, advertisers, and online publishers, the EU executive said in a press release.
“Google must now propose a serious solution to resolve its conflicts of interest, and if it fails to do so, we will not hesitate to impose drastic measures,” European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera said in a statement.
The tech giant now has until early November, or 60 days, to inform the Commission how it intends to resolve this conflict of interest and remedy the alleged abuse. The Commission stated that it would not rule out a structural divestment of Google's adtech business, but "wants to first listen to and assess Google's proposal."
THE LOCATION OF THE MOUNTAIN VIEW COLOSSUS
Big G isn't ready for a legal battle. Google will appeal the European Commission's decision. Vice President for Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland stated this, arguing that the EU's decision is unjustified.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/primo-piano/perche-piovono-multe-su-google/ on Sat, 06 Sep 2025 05:23:46 +0000.