The EU’s highest court issued two decisions today siding with the bloc in cases against Apple and Google dating back to 2016 and 2017, respectively. In the Apple case, Ireland was ordered to collect about $14.4 billion in unpaid taxes from the tech giant, while in the Google case, the European Commission fined the company around $2.5 billion for giving preferential treatment in search results to its own price-comparison shopping service. (New York Times)
Our Take
The rulings today underscore how the EU has sought to position itself as an aggressive watchdog at the forefront of tech regulation. Its approach is based on the assumption that the EU market’s attractiveness will force major companies to play by its rules, with knock-on effects for how Big Tech operates in the rest of the world. As a result, these penalties, although relatively limited, were considered test cases for taking a more hands-on approach to tech regulation, which the EU has done more aggressively in recent years.
To be sure, the effect so far has been a mixed bag. Multiple antitrust cases in the EU against Apple and Google have forced the two tech giants to change their behavior, but their critics and competitors say the effect has been minimal. Plus, tech evolves rapidly, and the time it has taken for these cases to wind their way through the legal system has raised doubts about the EU’s ability to keep up. Meanwhile, the penalties—or in Apple’s case, taxes—they have been forced to pay are drops in the bucket for these behemoths.