Google’s Breakup Needs an International Tag Team
The tech giant should be broken up, but regulators in Europe and the US must work together to ensure it’s done properly.
European Union competition chief Margrethe Vestager.
Photographer: Photo by John Thys/AFP/Getty Images
Here's a bit of antitrust trivia for you. How long does it take for Europe’s antitrust enforcers to punish a company once they’ve pointed out its misbehavior? The answer: about a year. When the European Commission officially complained about Apple Inc.’s streaming rules in February 2023, it followed that up with a €1.8 billion ($2 billion) fine in March 2024.
But Europe’s regulators have done something odd recently. After putting their spotlight on Google’s anticompetitive practices in online advertising in June 2023, they still haven’t said what the penalty will be — the thing everybody cares about.
Why the wait? Perhaps because the commission’s complaint had an eye-catching threat: “structural remedies,” a.k.a. a possible breakup of Google. It would be politically foolhardy for Europe to act alone in pushing to split up one of the biggest companies to come out of the US. Consider the number of times Donald Trump has accused European regulators of hating on America. Even Barack Obama has thrown shade at the continent’s trust busters for being anti-American. This would just amp up the rhetoric.