EU’s record $5 bil ‘antitrust’ fine on Google is really just more anti-U.S. protectionism

n what has now become a tiresome routine, European Union “Competition Commissioner” Margrethe Vestager has once again slapped an American company with a massive fine for the heinous crime of out-competing EU companies. The EU complains about U.S. tariffs, but this move to punish Google with a $5 billion antitrust fine is straight up protectionism.

“Stop this behavior,” Vestager told the firm. What behavior is that? Giving consumers ever-more options for their tablets, phones and computers at a lower price? The fine, after all, is for “abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system.”

The argument is that by giving consumers a whole bunch of stuff together, like the Chrome web browser, Gmail and Google search, consumers are being harmed.

Of course, that’s a crazy assertion, since consumers had no access to any of these things until Google provided them. Vestager should be called the “Anti-Competition Commissioner,” since her decision to fine Google only helps its European competitors, not EU consumers…

But this is how EU protectionism now works. And it’s a big reason why President Trump, whether you agree with his tariffs or not (and for the record, we don’t), is at least not a hypocrite in imposing them.

The EU talks a good game about globalism and free trade, but then subverts those very ideas with non-transparent protectionist actions like massive fines on U.S. tech champions…

The U.S. has a tariff war brewing. But that’s at least transparent. These attacks on Google and other U.S. tech giants, including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, amount to little more than trade protectionism – deceptively dressed up as benevolent EU consumer protection.