Tag: eu

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More Major Financial Penalties Coming for Google from the EU?

We reported last week that Google was being fined a record setting $2.7 Billion from the EU due to their Google Shopping strategies, but that could just be the beginning.  EU Antitrust regulators are currently looking into AdSense advertising, and the Android OS to see if they are being used in a way that stifles competition.

On top of that, EU’s Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that they may begin probing travel related services, such as Google Maps.

While additional penalties aren’t a sure thing, and Google may still appeal the $2.7 billion penalty already assessed, it could be a very costly year for the search giant. The EU really seems to have it out for Google though, so it is unlikely that they will stop looking at their practices and issuing fines and penalties.

Some people wonder if certain people within the EU simply see Google (and other American tech giants) as a cash cow from which they can keep pulling more and more money from to boost their own budgets and economies.

At some point, one needs to think that Google and other firms might just think that it is no longer worth it to do business in areas that are so hostile and have so much risk for lawsuits.

Keeping a close eye on the investigations that are being done, and any fines that are issued, will be important for many people who use or work with any of the Google services going forward.

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New EU Law Prevents Telecoms from Ad Blocking Across Network

Telephone companies have been toying with the idea of offering network wide ad blocking to their customers for a while now, with at least one company actually testing a system that blocked ads for a day.  Offering mobile customers the option to have all ads blocked on their devices could be very attractive to the users.  Of course, marketers, brands, ad networks, and others are very opposed to the idea.

Apparently lawmakers in Europe agree that this is a bad idea because they have established new rules that make it illegal to implement network wide ad blocking. This is part of a clause in their net neutrality guidelines, which states that telco’s, “Should not block, slow down, alter, restrict, interfere with, degrade, or discriminate advertising when providing an Internet Access Service.”

While some teleco’s are continuing to look into this as an option, they will now have to overcome what appears to be a strong legal prohibition on this practice.  While it has been proven to be possible to block these ads, it may no longer be worth the effort since any teleco that attempts it would have to pay significant legal fees to even try to convince the courts that they are allowed to.

Of course, individual users can still install any type of ad blocking software they would like to get the ad-free experience they want.  Having people install this type of thing one at a time, however, is much less of a concern for publishers and advertisers than having a network wide ban.