Yahoo Finance Donald Trump lashes out at Europe after it fines 'great company' Google £3.9bn
Donald Trump hinted that he may block trade routes with Europe after its lawmakers hit Google with a record £3.9bn fine over its smartphone business.
The US president took to Twitter to lash out at the European Union, which handed the penalty to the search giant over its Android operating system.
“I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the US, but not for long!," he wrote on the social network.
His tweet comes days after he called the EU a 'foe' of the United States for 'what they do to us in trade'.
Google was handed the record antitrust fine on Wednesday and ordered to change the way it puts search and web-browser apps onto Android mobile devices. Google was given until mid-October to stop what the EU called "illegal practices" on contracts with handset manufacturers that push its services in front of users. The company faces daily fines of 5pc of revenue if it doesn’t obey.
The penalty - the same amount the Netherlands contributes to the EU budget every year - is far higher than any other dished out by the US, Chinese or other antitrust authorities.
I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018
The US is unlikely to match the European Union’s fine. Competition regulation is divvied up by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.
While new FTC Chairman Joseph Simons told Congress Wednesday that the agency will review the EU findings closely, the same agency closed its own probe of Google years ago.
EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s fine on Google comes just a year after slapping the company with a €2.4 bn penalty for thwarting online shopping rivals. It is the latest in a series of EU strikes on Silicon Valley giants that also included hefty back tax bills for Apple and Amazon, accused of receiving unfair fiscal deals from EU nations.
The threat comes just days after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was “upbeat and relaxed” ahead of a trip to Washington next week to discuss strained trade relations with the US.
“We will continue to react tit-for-tat to the provocations that might be thrown at us,” said Junker.
