Ursula von der Leyen puts Google fine in drawer

There is a lot of turmoil in the corridors of the European Commission at the moment. Reports from Handelsblatt and Capital Forum are shaking the credibility of European digital policy. According to these reports, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is said to have personally intervened to stop a billion-euro fine against the American company Google.

In fact, the case was clear: In two extensive proceedings, EU competition authorities had investigated whether Google was systematically violating the DMA rules to further consolidate its dominant position in the market. According to reports, the investigations were already complete, the evidence was overwhelming, and the verdict was in: a billion-euro fine was to be formally announced in March.

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But nothing happened. The Commission President is said to have suspended the sanctions indefinitely. This is of course a bellwether for the independence of the Brussels government institutions and there are warning calls from parliament and civil society

The background to the dispute is the extensive obligations that Google had to fulfill as a “ gatekeeper ” under the DMA from 2023. The Commission set the company a six-month deadline in January to make some fundamental changes. For example, Google will have to remove technical barriers to competitors’ artificial intelligence assistants in its Android operating system and make its central search data accessible to competing search engine providers. The aim is to break up closed ecosystems and enable real competition. These requirements are of course putting pressure on Google.

The reaction from civil society to the petitions to stop the fine was not long in coming. In an open letter published on Wednesday , 34 organizations from across Europe call on the Commission President to implement the DMA.

They see the hesitation not only as an individual failure but also as a risk to the credibility of the digital sovereignty project. Over 20.000 citizens have already signed an online petition.

Experts like Felix Duffy from LobbyControl see the incident as a fatal message for the tech industry. If companies learn that violations of European law have no consequences when sufficient pressure is exerted on decision-makers, the EU will lose its most important leverage.

Duffy speaks of the EU's digital dependence on the US and suspects that Brussels has bowed to Washington instead of defending its own democratic fundamentals and the protection of citizens. Effective implementation of the DMA is the only way to limit the influence of Big Tech.

Max Bank from Rebalance Now also strongly criticizes the event and observes a worrying trend: procedures are prolonged, decisions are postponed and sanctions are implemented hesitantly.

Google's lawyer, Clare Kelly, argued that additional regulations, based more on competitor complaints than consumer interests, could jeopardize privacy and innovation. Teresa Ribera, the EU Commission's vice-president responsible for competition, attacked the Trump administration in the US in November. She said the US was putting enormous pressure on the EU to weaken its technology rules.

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