back to article Google must pay €150 million fine to French Competition Authority, court orders

Google has failed in its bid to dismiss a €150 million fine ordered by France's monopoly watchdog in 2019 for exploiting its position in the search advertising market, a court ruled on Thursday. The sanction, equivalent to about £124.8 million or $163.2 million – or about 20 hours of the company's annual profits, based on its …

  1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    More of the Same for a Sad and Mad Crooked Extortion Game.

    Google will have to pay €150 million fine to the French Competition Authority, court orders

    It is not a fine, Katyanna, it is ..... well, it is hard not to see it as anything other than an arbitrary covetous value added/adding tax payment which highlights, as do all such impositions/tax demands and payments, the Establishment's own lack of profitable provisional proprietary intellectual property it can monetise and provide attractively almost for free.

  2. IGotOut Silver badge

    Ha ha ha ha good one

    "People expect to be protected from exploitative and abusive ads and this is what our advertising policies are for,"

    Is this the same Google that got fuck loads of cash serving searches such as...

    Apply for a passport

    Renew car tax

    Apply for a <insert any normally free and / or government service>

    And you were immediately offered 3rd party services with massive fees thrown on top, for effectively filling in the identical form

    Yes, yes it is.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ha ha ha ha good one

      Well, allegedly that's what they tried to prevent in this case. I'm not sure why this is considered a bad thing, but I sure hope the money is not going to Gibmedia.

  3. Equality 7-2521

    Please report on the date the fine arrives in the bank account

    A bit fed up with reading about all these fines from regulatory bodies - but we never get told when the money actually arrives in the bank account.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: Please report on the date the fine arrives in the bank account

      A bit fed up with reading about all these fines from regulatory bodies - but we never get told when the money actually arrives in the bank account. ..... Equality 7-2521

      Or who personally actually spends all the monies supposedly banked is another serious question never answered satisfactorily, Equality 7-2521.

      It is almost as if it is one great fantastical BIG Club game ... and you aint in it. ........ George Carlin - It’s a BIG Club & You Ain’t In It ...... and whenever it is, and more deprived and/or depraved folk begin to realise it, there will be all hell to pay and you don’t want to be uncomfortably close friends with previously thought to be untouchable and immune from persecution and prosecution bankers.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Please report on the date the fine arrives in the bank account

      This is Google and only a €150 million fine ... so maybe they will just use Google Pay after lunch today and then send out 300 million emails offering a discount when EU (extra users) subscribe to updates?

    3. Dinanziame Silver badge

      Re: Please report on the date the fine arrives in the bank account

      For fines dished out by the EU, they had to pay the fine before appealing, IIRC. That said, are you worried that they are not paying the fine? I tend to think that the bodies issuing the fine don't forget that little detail, and would complain loudly to the media and add punitive interest rates otherwise.

      1. Equality 7-2521

        Re: Please report on the date the fine arrives in the bank account

        "For fines dished out by the EU" - perhaps. But this isn't an EU issued fine.

  4. VoiceOfTruth

    Gibmedia

    Has anyone actually been to their web site? It's basically an anti-google.

    Their Terms of Use and Privacy Policy goes to a dead link. Perhaps Gibmedia would be better getting their own house in order first.

    1. Sandtitz Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Gibmedia

      "Has anyone actually been to their web site? It's basically an anti-google."

      What's wrong being anti-google?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Of course Google will appeal just for the sake of obstinacy. The award is enough to make it worthwhile to pay the legal team in hopes of reducing or cancelling the penalty.

    The real problem with the multinationals is they're so rich you can't fine them enough for them to notice.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Looking Behind the Scenes in the Walled Perfumed Garden is an Almighty Sight to Experience

      Of course Google will appeal just for the sake of obstinacy. The award is enough to make it worthwhile to pay the legal team in hopes of reducing or cancelling the penalty. ..... msobkow

      And the news of such fines, and the activities subsequently invariably taken to deny or mitigate them, are as just so much mulch intended to seed and feed your brain captivated cells to occupy and direct all those new empty spaces intelligent random connections deliver with novel information for those crazy places where command and control has been earlier established and is being effectively run for the greater benefit of A.N.Others.

      It is how with IT and AI Machinery the Great Game is Played and Greater IntelAIgent Games Manufactured.

      Who/What be urSignificant A.N.Others?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like