The EU and the ongoing fines on technology companies

The European Union has imposed a record fine on Google, where the 4.34 billion euros ($ 5 billion) penalty announced on Wednesday by the European Commission was the last step in the process. a long battle between Google and the regulators in Brussels. Although the fine is standard, Google can absorb it without much trouble, and it will not encourage Europeans to abandon Google 's well – known Android operating system or its smart apps.

The European Union has a long history to put under the microscope the giants of technology, as was the case of Google, the most striking example, accusing the search giant of the world. abuse of its dominant position in the operating systems market.

The EU has emerged as an antithesis of big tech companies after developing and enforcing strict rules on data protection, hate speech, taxation and competition Nicolas Petit, a professor at the university. University of Liege and Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Hoover Institute at Stanford Stanford: "When you are a dominant company in Europe, you are subject to greater scrutiny and accountability."

Here are some of the most important cases in which giant technology companies were audited by the European Union:

⬛ March 2004 – Microsoft was fined 497 million. euros by the European Commission for breaking the anti Monopoly laws by forcing users of its Windows operating system on its Windows Media Player media player, the company was asked to stop the practice.

⬛ June 2006 – Microsoft was fined 280.5 million euros ($ 326 million) for violating the 2004 decision.

⬛ February 2008 – Microsoft was sentenced to a fine of $ 899 million for the third time ($ 1 billion) for non-compliance with the 2004 ruling, and the fine was later reduced to 860 million euros.

December 2009 – Microsoft has ordered Microsoft to allow users of its Windows operating system and its computer manufacturers to close its Internet Explorer browser and use others browsers.

⬛ May 2009 – Intel Corp. was fined 1.06 billion euros ($ 1.2 billion) for abusing its dominant position by pushing computer manufacturers to delay or even cancel the release of AMD chips.

December 2012 – Philips, Philips, LG Electronics, Panasonic and other companies are fined 1.47 billion euros ($ 1.7 billion) because they set common prices and markets, distribute customers and reduce production.

⬛ March 2013 – Microsoft was fined 561 million euros ($ 653 million) for violating the 2009 decision on its browser Internet Explorer.

⬛ May 2014 – The Supreme Court of Europe holds that people have the right to be forgotten and that search engines like Google should remove some unwanted links.

⬛ August 2016 – The European Commission has asked Ireland to recover up to 13 billion euros ($ 14.6 billion) in unpaid taxes from Apple.

⬛ May 2017 – Facebook is fined 110 million euros (122 million dollars) to mislead European officials on its acquisition of IM and TASAB.

⬛ June 2017 – Google has imposed a record fine of 2.4 billion euros ($ 2.7 billion) to use its search engine to redirect users to its own platform of purchase .

⬛ October 2017 – The European Commission has asked Amazon to pay unpaid taxes of 250 million euros ($ 293 million) after finding that it had benefited from illegal arrangements with Luxembourg.

⬛ January 2018 – The Commission imposed a $ 997 million ($ 1.2 billion) fine on Qualcomm to pay billions to Apple for failing to use bullets from competitors.

⬛ March 2018 – Europe tells tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, that terrorist content must be removed immediately or faced with new laws and fines.

⬛ April 2018 – The committee said that it was investigating Apple's acquisition of the Shazam music recognition application.

⬛ May 2018 – The new Data Protection Act in Europe is part of the General Regulation on the Data Protection Enforcement Act, which lays down strict new rules on how companies deal with data protection. personal data.

⬛ July 2018 – Google got a record on a new fine of 4.34 billion euros ($ 5 billion) because of Android.