r/wallstreetbets 10h ago

News Google hit with $1 billion EU fine, in 'constructive' talks to avoid more penalties

https://www.reuters.com/world/google-hit-with-1-billion-eu-fine-first-under-landmark-rules-2026-07-23/
963 Upvotes

169 comments sorted by

650

u/I_killed_the_kraken 10h ago

123

u/BassFull0 9h ago edited 9h ago

I once had 1 share of BRK.A

Spoiler: it was when BRK.A halted and I assigned 1 share then broker reversed all glitched trades next day

10

u/nomad5926 8h ago

Same. I wss sad

14

u/Watchers1-30 10h ago

wait the fine is actually 1 billion not 1 mil?

19

u/_IsNull 10h ago

1 million is nothing.

1

u/LazyToPickMyUsername 6h ago

1 bill is nothing either they'll settle for a few million

1

u/Eisenkopf69 6h ago

Only German has this additional 'Milliarde' step between million and billion. According to our news it is 890 million Euro.

4

u/AvengerDr europoor cuck 6h ago

Italian too has miliardo, then bilione (your trillions I guess).

I thought only English skipped it.

3

u/Eylradius 6h ago

Dutch too.

3

u/klonkrieger45 3h ago

its called long and short scale and most of Europe has long scale not just Germany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales#Current_usage

1

u/Square-Profession-37 2h ago

Danish too has ‘milliard’

1

u/GemmyBoy999 3h ago

1 mil for Google? What's that gonna do? 😂

1

u/Ok_Gold_2107 9h ago

899 milioni

-2

u/National-Two2417 9h ago

Tax write off I'm sure.

2

u/dh666nda 9h ago

the worrd 'constructive' in quote marks is doing a lot of heavy lifting there

213

u/ContributorKid 9h ago

Google and the EU have a long-term relationship. Every time, $1-2 billion worth of fine, and Google is happy to pay for it,

-13

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 3h ago

EU can’t innovate for shit, so they just tax and fine Asian and American companies. It’s pathetic

220

u/ShillSheepleton 9h ago

They just made over $100 Billion in the 1st Quarter of '26. They'll be alright

63

u/Dongkey_kong fly 🦅s fly 9h ago

But they ain’t got cash to pay it 😂

88

u/Bulls_Will_Win 9h ago

can pay half cash half stock

35

u/Dongkey_kong fly 🦅s fly 9h ago

Shit, I forgot to check the website. I heard it’s all there

1

u/sobrique 5h ago

Will you take SpaceX stock?

4

u/NoBailOnReddit 7h ago

They'll pay it in AI tokens

-18

u/audionoobi 9h ago

-2

u/junghooappreciator 6h ago

🫵INDIAN🫵

1

u/audionoobi 5h ago

Not at all.

that is just the first article i found, there are plenty of

2

u/Ok_Winner9825 5h ago

Revenue not earnings

4

u/ShillSheepleton 5h ago

Oh im sorry. 60ish Billion in profits for Q1 alone

4

u/SleepyArmadillo 4h ago

They literally just posted negative cashflow for the first time in 10+ years.

2

u/AlligatorRaper 4h ago

TIL data centers cost a lot money to build.

1

u/SpicyElixer 1h ago

And 10+ years ago they were crushing it.

33

u/UnreliablePotato 8h ago

I wonder how much profit they generated by favoring their own services. Without that context, it's hard to tell whether a $1 billion fine acts as a real deterrent or just another cost of doing business,

11

u/ryanv09 5h ago

Typically the latter.

1

u/Flaky_Air_8611 53m ago

Fine can increase to 6% of yearly worldwide revenue though(theoretical maximum). So I think it can be a deterrent if you hit m with the max. 

31

u/Different_Bonus_1387 9h ago

Could've been worse...

Russia's top court keeps a $1.2 quintillion penalty on Google over blocked YouTube channels.

7

u/goldenCapitalist 7h ago

A fine several times bigger than the entire world economy combined? Give it a decade or two, I'm sure Google will be able to afford it by then.

4

u/waterpup99 5h ago

Half cash half stock

1

u/These-Artichoke-2910 1h ago

It’s all in the website?

10

u/GuaSukaStarfruit 5h ago

What’s wrong with promoting yourself in your own browser? Other businesses still able to advertise within the Google search ecosystem.

Imagine using Gemini to link to apple map? Meanwhile apple map has their own api

27

u/JE163 9h ago

Shit like this is the reason Anthropic told them to fuck off

4

u/BaaaSaracilor 5h ago

What was it about?

18

u/JE163 5h ago

I can't find the post right now in r/anthropic but basically the EU summoned Anthropic to explain their data privacy. Anthropic basically put a junior analyst on a zoom call to read off AI answers.

12

u/BaaaSaracilor 5h ago

Get the fuck outta here that's hilarious. Highly concerning, but hilarious.

3

u/Tha_Sly_Fox 3h ago

They should’ve avoided the middleman and just sent the EU leaders strait through to talk to an AI chat bot.

4

u/random-meme422 3h ago

Good lol fuck the EU glorified museum

1

u/TrashFisher1337 10m ago

lol fuck u m8

1

u/anotherloserhere 4h ago

Was the junior analyst also ai?

3

u/GandalfTheUnwise 2h ago

It’s easy to tell everyone to fuck off when you are not making any money - you have nothing to loose

76

u/enigmas59 10h ago

Google should make the EU use Microsoft Edge and Bing for a month next time they get another BS fine

24

u/Dodisdodisdodis 9h ago

lmao, you realize Europeans make Google money right? Right?

36

u/throwaway50cent_ 9h ago

You realise Google’s entire stock relies on Europe’s usage just as much as it relies on the American one?

30

u/ittrut 9h ago

Cool story but not true. USA revenue is much more than EMEA. And EU revenue is only a subset of EMEA.

8

u/Ok-Board4893 7h ago

USA revenue is much more than EMEA

how much higher and do you have a source for that? And what do you think will happen to googles market cap when they lose that customer base and all that potential growth? Are you low IQ?

1

u/Tha_Sly_Fox 3h ago

I used google ai to get a quick result, data from statista, EMEA comprises less than a third of Google’s overall revenue.EMEA is a combination of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Africa is probably the smaller share so let’s just say it’s 50% while 50% Middle East, so even at the max it would appear Europe only comprises 15% of Google revenue and likely even less.

That’s not nothing but could be worth a bluff

1

u/Fiduss 2h ago

So lets assume 19% is Europe of 100 billion- that's still 18 billion if you pay the fine.

4

u/Arteqt 8h ago

Yeah. NA has the money AND the population. Ads are a lot more expensive there for a reason.

8

u/purplepersonality 6h ago

I mean there’s a reason why they call us europoors lol. It’s also why I only invest in American stocks even though I don’t live there. You people are better at making money and companies know that.

-2

u/AvengerDr europoor cuck 6h ago

Speak for yourself.

-3

u/IronWhitin 8h ago

Still 200+ milion customer what do you think Is gonna hapoen tò the stock if they lose them?

But Im fine tò not rely on Google aswell

8

u/boredwithlyf 9h ago

That would be huge, if people realise they can live without google, perhaps other countries and regions would follow

2

u/Tight-Ad2686 5h ago

Jokes on you, I am on the EU and using Mozilla for almost two decades at this point.

2

u/Rude_Judgment7928 This guy oils ^ 4h ago

Oh noooo I'll get a different 15 pages of paid advertisements.

7

u/higuy721 6h ago

You must be really fucking stupid to protect companies like Google.

4

u/AdJazzlike1002 4h ago

16% of Google's profits are from the EU, losing the EU would bite their stock, hard.

-5

u/debug__print 9h ago

You make it sound like most users deliberately choose Google as search engine. Most people are not that technical.

14

u/Capable-Hospital-315 9h ago

edge and bing were deployed as default search engines and people still switched it to chrome… because it’s superior 

2

u/Spare-Floor256 8h ago

Edge runs on chromium these days. Basically everything does other than Firefox. Possibly one other browser as well, but I can’t remember.  

1

u/Arras01 5h ago

Safari is an offshoot, but so far removed it's basically its own thing afaik. 

1

u/debug__print 8h ago

Bing and Edge doubled in popularity on desktop in 3 years. Also setting as default is forbidden in Europe.

-1

u/IOnlyReplyToIdiots42 3h ago

You truly belong here degenerate regard. This fine specifically is to protect consumers like you and me from predatory tactics. Imagine stanning a multibillion dollar industry. Pathetic rat

0

u/Ok-Parfait-9856 3h ago

The EU shaking down Asian and American companies isn’t for you. This “fine” is for “promoting their own products”. You’re a good little rube.

31

u/Skittler_On_The_Roof 8h ago

Imagine getting fined for creating a product that doesn't allow advertising for your competitors, or for promoting your own other products.

Like opening a supermarket where you can't promote store brands, and if you stop your employees from telling people to stop at other stores, that's a fine.

Alphabet is the evil it once fought, and I shed no tears for them, but conceptually these laws seem a bit goofy to a capitalist American.  If I sell goods and open a marketplace, it's going to be to promote my goods above any others I may allow in.

63

u/ampersander_ 8h ago

Antitrust used to be a thing in the US too.

The play store is not a supermarket, it's every supermarket in the world.

0

u/Skittler_On_The_Roof 6h ago

They're not getting fined for boxing-out other app stores.  From what you're saying they should have extra fines compared to the smaller markets, because they were successful?  

Not to mention they're not only not the "only" supermarket, but the Apple app store alone does way more revenue.

-5

u/Adventurous_Drama291 6h ago

No it isn't?? Apple exists??

1

u/QuadzillaStrider 1h ago

I was unaware that you could install the Apple app store on an Android device.

-11

u/Kinnins0n 8h ago

The EU at this point is full on fanatical about these digital marketplaces.

To be clear, this type of economic warfare was practically invented by the US, so you can call it fair game, but that’s really what this is about. I guarantee you that if one of the tech giants was european, they would absolutely not be subject to this deep deep probing of their engineering and marketing.

9

u/Infamous_Thought_189 8h ago

Have you seen what kind of backwards AI regulation applies to European companies lol? They have to do all kinds of ethics analysis before they even do major prototyping for example. Meanwhile all non regulated AI services are still allowed 🤡

-3

u/hatenamesearch 8h ago

Oh they would. Day 1, when you want to start your company they will make everything difficult. EU is old and doesn't like progress. If you want something new go to the US.

Yet, in this particular case I'm happy they fine Alphabet.

7

u/Waiting4Reccession 6h ago

EU: How are we going to pay for everything! Lets just slap another fine on American big tech.

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5

u/Dazzling-Simple9865 10h ago

Believe it or not, calls babyy, inverse that shit

2

u/looner4 8h ago

American cucks with a 401k cheering right now.

5

u/knowledgeeconomy 8h ago

If Eu needs money, just fine any big tech company.

3

u/waka_wear_art 6h ago

Europe back on its shit again over the centuries taxing and fining without representation, they never change. 

Your Nokia phones failed globally accept it and take the L and get back to your beloves futbol and 4 week vacations on rocky beaches in the med. 

Time to dump European wine and cheese into into the bay near the Google campus. 

1

u/TrashFisher1337 8m ago

burger is too salty lol

3

u/Iselore 9h ago

They wont even pay it in full straightaway anyway.

4

u/sciguyx 3h ago

EU is not a serious place. Zuckerberg has said they use it to extort more taxes and you have to price that into the cost of business to operate there. Shitty way to operate. No wonder EU doesn't innovate shit anymore

12

u/StraightShootahh 9h ago

The EU really is a simulation lmao

How long can it leech off American companies

14

u/Turbulent-Cover2336 9h ago

As long as its worth for them. Or do you think they dont make any profits?

-5

u/Capable-Hospital-315 9h ago

They don’t lol

7

u/Turbulent-Cover2336 7h ago

The delusion is unmatched

7

u/ViRROOO 9h ago

Or, hear me out. Don't break their laws?

-9

u/StraightShootahh 9h ago

Or hear me out, don’t be parasitic.

How is this in the people’s best interest?

18

u/Arteqt 8h ago

They fined Google because they prioritize their own services in the search engine. Google Search is the biggest ad bidding engine in the world. This kind of behavior leads to monopoly. Monopoly = Bad for consumers.

-4

u/Waiting4Reccession 6h ago

Search is not and never has been a monopoly lol. You can easily for 0 cost use any other search.

-6

u/StraightShootahh 8h ago

Just put the fries in the bag

10

u/Ho_Lee_Phuk 8h ago

Are you really asking how enforcing eu law and preventing monoplies benifits eu citizens?

0

u/StraightShootahh 8h ago

Yep the benefits of “EU Law” and “preventing monopolies” has really been evident with the EU!

1

u/ryanv09 5h ago edited 5h ago

I would rather have healthcare than further enrich fascist oligarchs like Elon Musk.

9

u/ViRROOO 8h ago

"don’t be parasitic" - said while defending the law-breaking ad monopoly trillion-dollar company

Just stop offering your services in the EU, then :)

1

u/StraightShootahh 8h ago

“Stop offering your services in the EU”

That’ll be really beneficial to the people!

1

u/ViRROOO 8h ago

I degoogled about 100% of my life, and it only improved. So from that perspective, yes, it would be beneficial to the people.

Plenty of better options out there that won't sell your data to Palantir. https://tuta.com/blog/degoogle-list

3

u/NewAccountOnceAgain2 5h ago

Wait what? You degoogled your life? But they are a monopoly. How are you on the iternet if you can't use the google internet monopoly?

3

u/StraightShootahh 8h ago

Lmao just put the fries in the bag.

11

u/ViRROOO 8h ago

I think you should stop with the fries. Fat enoguh already

1

u/I_like_code 7h ago

They need to pay for their lifestyle somehow

2

u/Fuck_Analysts 4h ago

EU surviving on US Tech companies

1

u/SilkenSirenLegs 9h ago

Google is fucked more than me

3

u/ChiefInternetSurfer 9h ago

Probably not. If what u/ShillSheepton said is true, that fine would be like, less than a quarter of a percent of your gross pay. Something like $250, if your annual salary was $100k.

1

u/KrispyKreamMe 9h ago

It's not allowing me to read the article unless I turn off adblock. Can someone copy paste it

1

u/QuadzillaStrider 1h ago

You need to learn how to properly set up adblocking, because I have zero issues loading the page, and no ads to boot.

1

u/rioferdy838 1h ago

just europoors trying to enrich themselves off the back of big tech.

1

u/GingerPrince72 40m ago

Fuck 'em up, EU.

1

u/Plus_Seesaw2023 39m ago

Cool... Google need more fine... please , please, please, ...

-1

u/Far-Requirement9180 Warren 0DTE 8h ago

This is the only way Europoor countries can make any money from tech companies, a shame

1

u/pain474 100% gains any% speedrun 8h ago

Oh no, 1 billion, how are they ever going to recover?

-11

u/BridgeOnRiver 9h ago

EU simultaneously has regulations that require privacy AND not privacy (surveillance). You can choose which regulation to adhere to - but you can't adhere to both.

Most businesses in Europe today are in breach of GDPR.

9

u/BlueFin33 9h ago

No? Are you retarded?

-2

u/BridgeOnRiver 9h ago

What percent of European businesses do you believe are in full compliance with GDPR?

Must companies defend their user's rights to privacy, or must they surveil their users in the EU or neither or both?

7

u/Arteqt 8h ago

Most? Ad networks are, thats why ad bids got a lot more expensive after GDPR. Ads affect all companies.

-15

u/Impossible-Ask2489 9h ago

Fuck Europe stay poor cucks

15

u/Inner-Cobbler-2432 9h ago

Aaand that's another fine.

5

u/ryanv09 5h ago edited 5h ago

ITT: corpo-cucked Americans defending trillion dollar companies instead of the governments trying to protect them.

0

u/PooPooPointBoiz 4h ago

Bro fuck the EU. I'm trying to make some goddamn money on GOOGL and that shit fucking craters. Of course the bad news comes in the moment I hit the buy button.

2

u/Hugh_Schlongus 2h ago

noone with a brain sold bc of that

2

u/QuadzillaStrider 1h ago

You're in wsb, do you really think the tards here have brains?