{"text":[[{"start":12.75,"text":"The European Commission has fined Google a total of €890mn for breaching the bloc’s digital rule book, while threatening to impose daily fines if the search engine company does not abide by its rules."}],[{"start":25.05,"text":"Brussels on Thursday said Google gave preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotel, transport and sports results, over those of third parties in its search engine."}],[{"start":36.35,"text":"It also said Google prevented app developers from freely communicating and promoting offers and concluding contracts with users in distribution channels of their choice, including third-party app stores."}],[{"start":49.35,"text":"The company was fined €460mn for the search breach and €430mn for the steering issues, and will have 60 days to propose solutions or face potential periodic fines. The new action against Google comes after antitrust regulators fined the company more than €8bn between 2017 and 2019."}],[{"start":71.05,"text":"“This is serious enforcement,” said EU competition chief Teresa Ribera. “It is quite a strong message to Google.” "}],[{"start":79.35,"text":"The penalties risk reigniting EU-US conflict over the regulation of Big Tech after tensions over the bloc’s digital rule book appeared to have eased. "}],[{"start":89.35,"text":"US President Donald Trump has previously compared the EU’s digital fines to “overseas extortion” and called them “a form of taxation”. Previous penalties against US tech companies or suggestions that they may be imminent have prompted irate responses from Trump and threats of retaliation, particularly through trade measures."}],[{"start":109.1,"text":"Ribera said that Brussels could not take decisions based on “what someone else is trying to tell us what to do or not to do”."}],[{"start":115.89999999999999,"text":"“It is our duty to defend the rule of law, including our own laws, independently of how they are perceived or challenged,” Ribera said, adding that “rule of law is being challenged” in other places around the world."}],[{"start":130.25,"text":"“Some of the expressions being stated by the US government are not particularly friendly to European law,” she added when asked if she believed the US was one of those places."}],[{"start":140.75,"text":"Kent Walker, Google’s chief legal officer, said the implementation of the EU’s Digital Markets Act “continues to break everyday products”."}],[{"start":149.45,"text":"He added that “this isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants, with European businesses and consumers taking the hit. Regulation should improve products, not make them worse.”"}],[{"start":163.39999999999998,"text":"Last week the FT revealed that the EU’s enforcement arm was set to issue fines of hundreds of millions of euros in two separate decisions against Google."}],[{"start":173.2,"text":"The Commission ordered Google to revise its policies within 60 days or risk periodic penalties of up to 5 per cent of its average daily turnover. Google’s parent company Alphabet reported revenue of $402.83bn last year."}],[{"start":187.95,"text":"“We are now expecting Google to come with solutions,” said Henna Virkkunen, the bloc’s technology chief."}],[{"start":204,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784807798_9780.mp3"}