According to the Commission, there is a strong possibility that Google’s current practices are anti-competitive and could, thus, be illegal under EU law. Furthermore, the statement notes that a ‘behavioral remedy’ is unlikely to be effective and implies that drastic moves on the EU’s part are not out of the question.
The European Commission’s ‘preliminary view’ asserts that ‘only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address its competition concerns.’ In other words, if Google wants to continue to have access to the European Single Market it has two options – it can either break up its online advertising business or risk a massive fine of 10% of its annual worldwide turnover.
Google could also, theoretically, decide to withdraw from the EU or (more realistically) pursue some kind of different arrangement with the Commission. It should be noted that the latter’s position on the matter is not final.
This is hardly the first time an American tech giant has been forced to reconsider vital parts of its business model when faced with the prospect of legal action in the EU. Apple is expected to put an end to its proprietary Lighting connector and introduce the first USB-C iPhone later this year, precisely because of mounting pressure from EU regulators.
