https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/13/technology/how-europe-is-going-after-us-tech-giants.html
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`How Europe Is Going After Apple, Google and
`Other U.S. Tech Giants
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`Kelly Couturier
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`Antitrust: European antitrust authorities announced in July a new round of charges against
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`the company — the third set since early 2015 — claiming that some of the company’s
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`advertising products had restricted consumer choice.
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`Google vigorously denied any wrongdoing in two previous European antitrust cases linked to
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`Android, its popular mobile operating system, and some of its dominant online search
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`services.
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`Google could face fines of up to 10 percent, or about $7 billion, of its global annual revenue if
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`it is found to have broken Europe’s tough competition rules.
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`European regulators began formally investigating the tech giant in 2010 over antitrust issues
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`regarding search results. Over the years, competitors like Microsoft have also filed formal
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`complaints against Google, as have media and telecommunications companies like Deutsche
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`Telekom.
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`Right to Be Forgotten: Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice, ruled in May
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`2014 that citizens had a so-called right to be forgotten, and that search engines, including
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`Google, must honor some requests from users to delete links to personal information.
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`European regulators have since called on Google to apply the “right to be forgotten” ruling
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`beyond the borders of the European Union. In March, France’s data protection watchdog
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`fined Google $112,000 for failing to comply with demands to extend the ruling across its
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`global domains, including Google.com in the United States. Google filed an appeal in May to
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`overturn the fine.
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`As of April, almost two years since the court ruling, Google had passed judgment in over
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`417,000 cases — roughly 571 a day — from people wanting links to certain search results to be
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`removed, according to the company’s records. It approved fewer than half of those requests,
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`all behind closed doors, raising questions about the role of commercial interests in protecting
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`people’s privacy.
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`Taxation: Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief who has become the
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`bloc’s chief tax inquisitor, said in January that she might look into the 130 million pound, or
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`$175 million, settlement reached between Google and the British government over back taxes.
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`Spanish authorities in June opened a new investigation into possible tax evasion by Google,
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`and in late May, French tax authorities raided Google’s offices there as part of an
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`taxes.
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`investigation for aggravated financial fraud. Google is also in discussions with Italy over back
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