The US government has hit back at Brussels after the European Commission slapped on Thursday a €890 million fine against Google for breaching the bloc's Big Tech rulebook, warning that the sanction puts the EU-US trade deal at risk.
The Commission announced the first fine against Google under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), concluding a two-year investigation into the company's alleged unfair practices — notably self-preferencing its own services in search results and unfairly treating app developers.
The sanction predictably drew the ire of Washington, which views the EU's digital rules as unfairly targeting American companies and has repeatedly equated the fines with trade tariffs.
"This is in addition to two recent actions by the Commission under the Digital Markets Act that target Google's Android operating system and Search services that pose serious risks for the privacy and security of users, represent a de facto forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and impose unreasonable financial penalties," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement after the news.
According to the senior US official, the various fines against Google alone amount to over 2% of the EU's budget, a contribution larger than that of many of the bloc's member states.
