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Google’s latest quarterly filing shows something that would have sounded fake a few years ago. The company now tracks “European Commission fines” as a standard expense. The total reached $10.5 billion by September 30. This shows how penalties from the EU have become routine for the largest U.S. tech firms operating in Europe. In 2024, public technology companies based in Europe paid €3.2 billion in income tax. During the same year, regulators collected €3.8 billion in fines from U.S. technology firms. That means penalties alone exceeded the entire tax contribution of the listed European tech companies. Officials inside the bloc privately acknowledge that if SAP relocated operations to the United States, nearly half of that tax base would disappear, leaving fines as a growing revenue stream for the EU. EU regulators stack fines on Google across ads, Android, and AI The European Commission first fined Google €2.95 billion for adtech abuses tied to self-preferencing and conflicts inside its advertising supply chain. Regulators ordered the company to stop favoring its own ad services and restructure how it handles auctions and placement tools across Europe. Earlier rulings targeted mobile dominance. The Commission issued a €4.34 billion fine over illegal Android practices that forced device makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome. Officials said those deals locked out rivals before users ever turned on their phones. Enforcement did not stop there. In December 2025, regulators opened a fresh investigation into whether Google uses publisher content and YouTube material to train its AI Overviews without fair payment. The probe focuses on whether that conduct harms competitors while boosting Google’s AI products inside the EU. EU laws pull Washington into a widening political clash Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has accused Brussels of targeting U.S. firms while allowing European companies to operate freely in America. His…

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Filed under: News - @ December 26, 2025 10:23 pm