French Minister Proposes Using Google Antitrust Fines to Offset EU Budget Contributions

French Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad stated that the European Union should use billions of euros in fines collected from Google to reduce member states' contributions to the EU budget. Haddad noted that the 4.6 billion euros in recent fines could serve as a new revenue stream to automatically lower national contributions. Google has faced a total of 10.38 billion euros in EU antitrust fines over the past two decades, including an 890 million euro penalty (approximately 1.01 billion dollars) issued in July for violating regulations aimed at curbing the power of major tech companies.