Optimists latch on to the hope that the stability we have lost can be restored post-Trump. Having spent the past few days in Washington, I doubt it. Even in recent history, things were not quite so bad for the transatlantic relationship. The current tensions make the first Trump administration look like a walk in the park for Europeans. It is one thing to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump did in his first term.
The European Union today fined Google roughly $3.5 billion for violating its competition laws, a move that risks escalating tensions with the Trump administration. The European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation bloc, said Google had breached antitrust laws by using its size and dominance to control the display advertising business, undercutting rivals. The European Union's aggressive regulation of the tech industry has been a major source of contention with the United States.
The penalty risks inflaming tensions with US President Donald Trump Google has been fined almost €3bn by the European Union and ordered to stop fauvoring its own advertising technology services, in a move that risks further inflaming tensions with US President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that Google had abused its dominance by giving its own ad exchanges a competitive advantage over rivals, and that it must bring the practices to an end.