A simple EU investigation into Google is not enough, or will it take tougher measures?

The European Union may seek to implement “more prescriptive” measures in its fight against anti-competitive practices on the continent, a report suggests.

Previously, the measures taken by the European Commission against them were mainly to require them to stop anti-competitive behavior. In serious cases, fines may be imposed. Obviously, the EU now believes that these are not enough. Cecilio Madero Villarejo, the acting director-general of the European Commission for market competition, said today that previous measures may not be enough, especially in the digital market.

According to Reuters, a senior official of the European Commission, the EU's antitrust agency, said that the EU is considering taking a tougher stance against technology giants such as Apple and Google, forcing them to take more measures to ensure fair competition. Undoubtedly, this move may affect the four major US technology giants Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. Currently, due to constant complaints from competitors, these four US technology companies have become the EU's antitrust targets.

Currently, the four US technology companies have become the target of EU antitrust authorities due to complaints from competitors that they are being excluded from major markets.

Typically, the European Commission would first order companies to stop anti-competitive behavior, but Cecilio Madero Villarejo, the European Commission's acting director-general for competition, said that might not be effective enough, especially in digital markets.

On Monday, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager also said she would take a different stance against Google, which has already been fined more than 8 billion euros by the European Union after a decade-long investigation.

In addition, in March this year, the EU antitrust agency fined Google 1.49 billion euros (about 11.3 billion yuan) on the grounds of unfair advertising competition; in July last year, Google received a 4.34 billion euro (about 33.9 billion yuan) fine from the EU for taking advantage of its monopoly position in the Android system and bundling the sale of the "Chrome" browser, setting a record for the highest fine ever imposed on a high-tech company by the EU. In 2017, Google was fined 2.4 billion euros (about 18.3 billion yuan) by the EU for distorting search results and preventing small shopping websites from providing services to users.