Google's €2.4bn fine is small change – the EU has bigger plans

When it comes to the EU Commission's decision to fine Google €2.42 billion for breaking competition law, the cash is just a distraction. The EU's larger goal is to position itself as an antidote to Silicon Valley's winner-takes-all attitude, and reshape our interactions with the world's tech giants. The hefty sum – the largest ever doled out by the EU's competition regulators – will sting in the short term, but Google can handle it. Alphabet, Google's parent company, made a profit of $2.5 billion (€2.2 billion) in the first six weeks of 2017 alone. The real impact of the ruling is that Google must stop using its dominance as a search engine to give itself the edge in another market: online price comparisons.