France would recover more than 650 million euros

The € 4.3 billion fine imposed by the European Commission on Google could bring more than € 650 million to France. The newspaper Le Parisien recalls that the amount of fines imposed by the Commission is then paid back to the EU member states in proportion to their contribution to the Union budget. Nevertheless, Google has appealed this decision, which means that this sum will not be found in the government budget for several years – in the best case.

The newspaper Le Parisien responds in a file to a very important question: following the huge fine against Google, who will recover the funds concretely? One could indeed think that this would come to feed the budget of a Union in search of resources. And yet this is not at all the case: the texts provide indeed that "the fines of competition are returned to the Member States, in proportion to their contribution to the European budget" as explains Guillaume Roty , quoted by the daily. What else to hurt the sensitivity of Donald Trump?

Fine Google: why France will touch the "jackpot" in a few years

France contributing 15% of the total budget of the Union, the country can indeed hope to recover alone more than 650 million euros on the 4.3 billion euros fine. Knowing that in addition to this, the decision is accompanied by a heavy penalty of 5% of the Alphabet daily turnover in the world per day of delay if the firm does not put an end to its illegal practices in the 90 days. In addition to this sum, France should recover 15% penalties late, not to mention the 15% of another record fine of 2.4 billion euros (ie 360 ​​million euros) already pronounced against Google in a other case antitrust .

Thus, in total, France could benefit from more than one billion euros of exceptional revenues. Four other states should also benefit greatly from the fine: Germany, whose contribution is even higher, Italy, and the United Kingdom even if it leaves the EU. From there, states do what they want. This money is not intended to compensate the injured companies: they will be able to rely on this decision to, if they wish, to attack Google case by case and claim compensation.

What may be done Google, given the weight of these decisions in the hierarchy of norms in Europe: the national judges will be more inclined to give reason to the victims based on this jurisprudence. Still, this welcome amount will not in any case be part of the state budget before a good time. Wednesday, July 18, Google announced its intention to appeal. The appeal blocks funds for the duration of the proceedings, which may last more than two years. As the saying goes: everything comes to those who wait …