Alphabet's Google is expected to face a modest antitrust fine from the European Commission in the coming weeks over allegations of anti-competitive conduct in its adtech business, three people familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
The decision follows a four-year-long investigation triggered by a complaint from the European Publishers Council, which accused Google of favoring its own advertising services over rival platforms. The charges, formally laid out in 2023, have kept pressure on Google at a time when its global ad business remains dominant. In 2024, Google generated $264.6 billion from advertising -- accounting for 75.6% of its total revenue.
EU competition chief Teresa Ribera, who took over from Margrethe Vestager, is signalling a change in Brussels' enforcement style. Unlike Vestager, who levied record-breaking penalties such as the €4.3 billion fine in 2018 for Android-related abuses, Ribera is prioritizing behavioral remedies to curb anti-competitive practices rather than headline-grabbing deterrent fines.
"The focus now is to push companies to change how they operate, rather than punish them with massive penalties," one person with knowledge of Ribera's approach said.
Google, for its part, has pushed back. In a 2023 blog post, the company criticized what it called the Commission's flawed reading of the adtech sector, insisting publishers and advertisers "have enormous choice." While the fine is expected to be modest, Google is unlikely to face structural remedies such as a forced sell-off of its DoubleClick for Publishers or AdX exchange platforms -- a divestiture that Vestager once floated. Ribera's team believes such drastic steps may not be necessary, particularly as a U.S. judge has already scheduled a September trial to consider remedies for Google's dominance in digital ad tools used by publishers.
The looming EU fine comes amid heightened friction between Washington and Brussels over the regulation of U.S. technology companies. President Donald Trump, who has long bristled at Europe's assertive regulatory stance, threatened Monday to impose substantial tariffs and export restrictions on any country that enforces digital taxes or rules he says "discriminate" against American firms such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple.
"Digital taxes, legislation, rules or regulations are all designed to harm, or discriminate against, American technology," Trump wrote on Truth Social. He argued that while Europe and the UK impose levies such as the 2% digital services tax, China's tech giants are "outrageously given a complete pass."
Trump warned: "Unless these discriminatory actions are removed, I, as president of the United States, will impose substantial additional tariffs on that country's exports to the USA, and institute export restrictions on our highly protected technology and chips."
European officials have touted a pushback against Trump's tariffs through regulatory scrutiny of U.S. tech firms. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, urged his ministers to prepare retaliatory options that could directly target the U.S. digital sector.
"Europe should not exclude taking a look at the digital sector" in formulating its response, Macron said, according to a senior French official who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity. The French leader pointed to the EU's negative trade balance in services with the U.S., contrasting it with Washington's repeated demands that Europe reduce its trade surplus in goods such as cars, pharmaceuticals, and food.
The escalating tensions are reviving concerns of a broader transatlantic trade rift. Trump's threat of tariffs on European exports mirrors earlier confrontations over steel, aluminium, and autos, while the EU's scrutiny of Silicon Valley giants is increasingly seen in Washington as a disguised form of economic retaliation.
For Google, the modest adtech fine may only be the latest chapter in its long battle with European regulators, following earlier multibillion-euro penalties in 2017, 2018, and 2019.