Google Is the Latest Silicon Valley Target for EU Regulators

Wayne Duggan

Alphabet ( GOOG, GOOGL) shareholders capped off a tough week for technology stocks last week with news that the company may soon be hit with at least a $1.4 billion fine from the European Union for non-competitive search practices.

The European Commission has been investigating whether Google abused its dominant search position in Europe since 2010, but two people with direct knowledge of the investigation now say a fine is coming by the end of August.

The commission is expected to hit Google with its largest fine ever, topping the 1.06 billion euro fine it imposed on Intel Corp. ( INTC) in 2009 for similar antitrust abuses. At the time, the Intel fine was worth roughly $1.4 billion.

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Google is accused of leveraging its 90 percent internet search market share in Europe and "systematically favoring its comparison shopping service in its search results pages," according to a European Commission statement last year.

For Alphabet, which reported $89.5 billion in global revenue in 2016, a $1.4 billion fine wouldn't be too difficult to handle. However, GOOGL investors are concerned that the fine may be just the tip of the iceberg.

In addition to the charges of search ranking abuse, the European Commission has also looked into whether Google's Android software restricted digital competition and if Google's advertising products limited free-market competition. In addition to potential fines of up to 10 percent of the company's annual revenue, Google will likely have a new set of regulations it must adhere to in Europe. Outside of the fines and court costs associated with legal challenges, Google may have to devote time and resources to changing key elements of its search engine and advertising software to comply with the new demands.

Google is only one of a handful of big-name U.S. technology companies facing potential action from the European Commission in 2017.

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Apple ( AAPL) plans to appeal a 13 billion euro tax bill it received from E.U. regulators last year on charges that it owed back taxes to the Irish government. In May, Facebook ( FB) was fined $122 million by E.U. regulators after they ruled the company provided misleading information related to its 2014 takeover of WhatsApp.

Wayne Duggan is a freelance investment strategy reporter with a focus on energy and emerging market stocks. He has a degree in brain and cognitive sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and specializes in the psychological challenges of investing. He is a senior financial market reporter for Benzinga and has contributed financial market analysis to Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha and InvestorPlace. He is also the author of the book "Beating Wall Street With Common Sense," which focuses on the practical strategies he has used to outperform the stock market. You can follow him on Twitter @DugganSense, check out his latest content at tradingcommonsense.com or email him at wpd@tradingcommonsense.com.