Dominance, data, disinformation: Europe's fight with Big Tech
Irish regulators on Friday handed out a 345-million-euro ($369-million) fine to TikTok over data breaches, part of a battle between the European Union and big tech firms on issues from tax avoidance and hate speech to data privacy and monopolistic practices.
Here is a summary of the tussles between the tech giants and Brussels.
Ireland issues the most stringent fines on this front as Dublin hosts the European offices of several big tech firms and data privacy is enforced by local regulators.
Friday's massive fine against TikTok for mishandling children's data came just four months after Ireland hit Meta with a record penalty of 1.2 billion euros for illegally transferring personal data between Europe and the United States.
Luxembourg had previously held the record for data fines after it slapped Amazon with a 746-million-euro penalty in 2021.
Brussels has doled out over eight billion euros in fines to Google alone for abusing its dominant market position.
In 2018, the company was fined 4.3 billion euros -- the EU's biggest ever antitrust penalty even after it was reduced to 4.1 billion euros -- for using its Android mobile operating system to promote its search engine.
The firm has also incurred billion-plus fines for abusing its power in the online shopping and advertising sectors.
The European Commission, the EU's executive, recommended in June that Google should sell parts of its business and could face a fine of up to 10 percent of its global revenue if it fails to comply.
Apple has also been in the EU's sights, with Brussels investigating its dominance among music streaming apps.
The EU has had little success in getting tech companies to pay more taxes in Europe, where they are accused of funnelling profits into low-tax
Read more on tech.hindustantimes.com
