The EU is threatening to completely break up Google’s ad empire, and Donald Trump’s tariffs may have just made it happen

The European Commission just hit Google with a €2.95 billion fine for abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology market. It’s a huge deal, especially since it happened despite some serious political drama involving U.S. President Donald Trump and the threat of tariffs.

The EU’s decision is all about holding Google accountable for allegedly favoring its own services over those of its competitors, advertisers, and online publishers. The Commission said that Google’s ownership of so many different parts of the digital ad ecosystem creates “inherent conflicts of interest”.

According to Politico, the fine was originally supposed to happen a few days ago, on a Monday, but it was apparently delayed after the EU’s trade czar, Maroš Šefčovič, intervened thanks to the continued tariff threats from the Trump administration. Trump has been using the threat of tariffs and trade retaliation to get his way with other countries and institutions since he took office again in January, and they caused a push.

The EU finally hit Google with a big fine

To be fair, this isn’t the first time the EU has gone after Google. In 2018, Google was hit with a €4.34 billion fine related to Android. That was a bigger fine, but this one is still higher than the €2.42 billion fine they got in 2017 for favoring their own shopping service.

The Commission is not pulling any punches and has made it clear that Google needs to find a serious way to fix these conflicts of interest. If Google doesn’t, the Commission “will not hesitate to impose strong remedies,” according to European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera. This could even mean that Google would have to sell off some of its adtech assets.

This is a move the Commission mentioned back in 2023 as a potential way to prevent the company from favoring its own services in the future. Google has 60 days, until early November, to tell the Commission how it plans to resolve the issue. The EU said it’s open to hearing Google’s proposal, but it isn’t ruling out a forced divestment. This is a big moment because a U.S. federal court judge already found that Google has an illegal monopoly in display search advertising, and a trial to figure out the penalties is scheduled to start later this month, on September 22.

The U.S. government is also pushing for Google to sell off some of its assets in that trial. Google, on the other hand, is not taking this lying down. The company’s Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said that the firm will appeal the Commission’s decision because it’s “unjustified”. She also said that the changes the EU is demanding “will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money”.

This is just another case of Google and its anti-trust issues and monopolistic behaviors. Until Google stops playing favorites and is completely fair, this will keep happening.