The EU gets cold feet on Google fine, fears Trump’s potential backlash

The European Union has put the plans to Google on hold. The commission responsible for suspending the punishment of digital offenses fears that the fact that the American technology giant has allegedly abused in online advertising could provoke US President Donald Trump.

Bloomberg and Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources, which EU officials had planned to announce the antitrust sanction on Monday; However, this deadline came and took place without advertisement.

The Survey Commission on dominant advertising technology companies in Google since 2021, examining how the company benefits from the operation on both sides of the digital advertising market. The regulators had to hit Google with a fine and perhaps force it to sell part of its advertising activity.

Mlex, who first pointed out, said that the Commission said last Friday that her probe was over. But at the last minute, senior officials outside the antitrust team raised fears that the announcement could be angry, derail the commercial negotiations and potentially trigger new prices.

The Commission and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Gizmodo.

Commission’s concerns are not unfounded. Trump has repeatedly used the threat of prices to push his program and help American companies.

Last week, he threatened prices and more restrictions on flea exports to countries that implement a digital services tax. He posted on Truth Social that these taxes are “designed to harm or discriminate American technology” while giving “a complete success to the largest technological companies in China”. Trump criticized taxes, which are already in place or offered in several European countries, saying that American technological companies are no longer “neither the” piggy bank “nor the” doormat “of the world”.

The European Union’s decision to delay its sanctions provided against Google comes only a few weeks after the EU and the United States have published a joint declaration concerning a agreed executive for a balanced trade agreement. However, while negotiating commercial terms with the United States, the EU declared in an information sheet that changes in its digital rules “were not on the table”.

However, the news of the delayed sanction has now raised alarms across Europe. The German monopolies commission qualified him as alarming precedent for the independence of the EU antitrust application. “Competition protection should not become a Trump administration pawn,” said President Tomaso Duso in a statement, according to Reuters.

Stéphanie Yon-Courtin, a French member of the European Parliament, posted on X that “if this is true, he sends a very bad signal. Digital rules are not negotiable!” She urged the Commission to clarify that the EU will not retreat to American pressure.

Whatever happens in Europe, Google is still in hot water in the United States. The EU’s investigation ran alongside American disputes, which led to a decision as a federal judge in April that Google operated a monopoly on advertising technology. A two -week appeal trial in the Ministry of Justice trial is expected to start on September 22.