Google faces fresh threat to break up adtech business

Brussels’ latest €2.95bn (£2.56bn) fine against Google might not make much of a dent in the tech giant’s predicted €190bn (£165bn) ad revenue, but it signals that, like US regulators, the European Commission is willing to escalate from fines to forcing the company to break up its business.

That is the damning verdict of Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman, who reckons the move is less of a knockout punch than a regulatory shot across the bows.

Goldman, like others, also sees the EU ruling playing into a larger geopolitical drama, with US President Donald Trump wading into the debate.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump called the fine “very unfair”, adding that his “administration will not allow these discriminatory actions to stand”.

The US president also wrote that he “will be forced to start a Section 301 proceeding to nullify the unfair penalties being charged to these Taxpaying American Companies”.

Under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the US may impose penalties on foreign countries whose actions are deemed “unjustifiable” or “unreasonable”. Trump told reporters: “I will be speaking to the European Union.”

The investigation was triggered by a complaint from the European Publishers Council and focused on Google’s AdX exchange and DFP ad platform. The Commission said it found that Google had “abused its power” by favouring its own online display adtech services to the detriment of competitors, online advertisers and publishers.

This is the fourth time Brussels has sanctioned Google with a multibillion-euro fine in an antitrust case, in a wider battle with regulators that dates back to 2017.

EU Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera commented: “Digital markets exist to serve people and must be grounded in trust and fairness. At this stage, it appears that the only way for Google to end its conflict of interest effectively is with a structural remedy, such as selling some part of its adtech business.”

The company has 60 days to come up with proposed remedies and vowed to appeal against the decision.

Google vice-president Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a statement that the fine was “unjustified” and that the changes required “will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money”.

While last week a US court ruled that Google will not have to sell its Chrome web browser but must share information with competitors, Goldman reckons the timing of this case could not have been worse.

He explained: “In just weeks, it faces a US remedies trial where the DOJ is also pushing to unwind parts of its advertising business. Add sliding clickthrough rates post-AI Overviews, publisher pushback over traffic declines, and intensifying competition from Amazon, TikTok, and retail media, and Google is fighting fires on multiple fronts.

“The bottom line is, Google can afford the fines. What it can’t afford is the mounting drumbeat of cases, from Brussels to Washington, all circling the same idea – that breaking up big tech’s advertising empire may be the only remedy regulators consider credible.”