Google has been taking quite a beating from regulatory entities in the EU over the past couple of years, specifically due to its violation of antitrust rules in the region. The company has twice broken the record for the most expensive fine issued to a company over antitrust regulations - last year, it had to pay a whopping €2.42 billion (roughly $2.79bn), but this year it went further, and the advertising giant was fined for a staggering €4.34 billion (about $5 billion at current conversion rates) earlier this year.
Thankfully, it seems Google has taken some steps to appease European regulators, and those efforts may finally be getting some recognition. Regarding a report submitted to the EU in September, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that it"s seen signs of improvements in Google"s behavior, but the company may not celebrate just yet:
"We had another compliance report ... and we see improvements in numbers but we are still following it very, very closely and have taken no decision yet(...)"
When Google was fined back in July, it was told that it would have to stop its illegal practices within 90 days to avoid a fine which could go up to 5% of the daily global turnover of Alphabet, Google"s parent company. Whether or not those fines will go through is dependent on the conclusions taken from the report submitted last month.
While this may seem like good news for the company, some competitors are still not satisfied with the changes made, and Vestager says the European Commission is still listening to those complaints. Whether or not Google can avoid further damage remains to be seen, but this saga has probably already made the company uncomfortable as it is.
Source: Reuters