EU regulators have just handed over a hefty £1.3 billion bill to the search giant Google for not playing by their rules.
A bill of this big for most businesses would mean end of play, but not for Google because it’s just too rich with a market valuation of $739 billion. What does this figure mean for the rest of the world (well for less fortunate countries)? Let’s take a look.
Many countries can go debt free with this sum!
Google has been the big whale in the sea since decades now, it has had its own way of working and acquiring the entire ocean too. Since the stringent EU laws Google has fallen into a bit of trouble due to its aggressive approach to capture the market. The EU has proved to be the white shark of this sea and has imposed no tolerance within its territory.
Let’s take a look at the fines paid by Google just in the last 3 years within the EU.
2017 Abused dominance by manipulating search results to favour its own comparison shopping service.
It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.
Fine Paid: £2.06 billion
2018 AntiTrust Violations – Serious illegal behaviour to secure the dominance of its search engine on mobile phones.
Google has used its Android mobile phone operating system to cement its dominance as a search engine, preventing rivals from innovating and competing The vast majority of users simply take what comes with their device and don’t download competing apps.
Fine paid: £3.8 billion
2019 Advertising Violations
Google forced businesses to sign contracts if they wanted to use the company’s technology to provide search functions on their own websites. Companies could also run adverts alongside those results using Google’s AdSense for Search, but the EU said Google used the feature to muscle out competitors.
Fine paid: £1.3 billion
Thumping $10 billion fines in just a span of 3 years!
Just in the last 3 years the EU regulators have fined Google with approx $10 billion as a penalty for violating various laws. Google wouldn’t lose their sleep over this number but did you know that more than 30 countries can go completely external debt free with the money Google paid in fines just in the EU?
Countries that could completely go external debt free with this sum.
Country | Debt in USD |
---|---|
Central African Republic | 767100000 |
Solomon Islands | 757000000 |
Fiji | 750400000 |
Aruba | 693200000 |
Burundi | 619800000 |
Gambia The | 619700000 |
Eswatini | 548200000 |
Saint Lucia | 523200000 |
Kosovo | 506000000 |
Samoa | 447200000 |
Turkmenistan | 443400000 |
Antigua and Barbuda | 441200000 |
Faroe Islands | 387600000 |
Sao Tome and Principe | 343400000 |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | 324400000 |
Timor-Leste | 311500000 |
Dominica | 288600000 |
Tonga | 233500000 |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | 198000000 |
Vanuatu | 185400000 |
Comoros | 131100000 |
New Caledonia | 112000000 |
Marshall Islands | 97960000 |
Micronesia Federated States of | 93600000 |
Anguilla | 41040000 |
Kiribati | 40900000 |
Greenland | 36400000 |
British Virgin Islands | 36100000 |
Montserrat | 8900000 |
Wallis and Futuna | 3670000 |
Niue | 418000 |
Figures extracted from CIA fact book.
In conclusion, EU laws especially GDPR is here to stay and if you own a business in the EU then you could be their next target. If you are a recruiter dealing with personal data and other sensitive information then you are liable to comply with EU laws. Speak to a member of our team at +44 161 533 0867 to schedule a quick demo to understand how you can achieve and maintain compliance using Recruitly’s GDPR framework.
Learn from Google’s mistakes… If you own a recruitment business call us today on +44 161 533 0867 to learn more about EU regulations.
References:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2079rank.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40406542
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47639228
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/11/google-appeals-eu-fine-search-engine-results-shopping-service
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/18/google-faces-record-multibillion-fine-from-eu-over-android
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/20/google-fined-149bn-by-eu-for-advertising-violations
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/30/17408254/microsoft-google-alphabet-market-cap-value