As EU governments negotiate the bloc's seven-year spending plan, France is making a case for redirecting Google's substantial fines toward lowering national budget contributions. Benjamin Haddad, Minister Delegate for European Affairs, outlined the proposal during a Tuesday appearance on Franceinfo, according to Reuters.
Haddad framed the fines as an untapped revenue stream for the Union. "This is a new revenue source for the European Union, worth €4.6 billion, that should automatically lower the contributions of all member states," he said.
The minister did not clarify which specific penalty the figure represents. The largest recent enforcement action involved a €4.125 billion fine against Google's Android practices, which the EU's top court upheld on 2 July following an eight-year dispute. When interest accrues, this penalty reaches approximately €4.7 billion, according to Agence Europe. Over nearly two decades of competition investigations, the Commission has imposed a cumulative €10.38 billion in fines on the search giant.
The penalties also include a €890 million sanction handed down in July—the inaugural enforcement under the Digital Markets Act—for leveraging its search dominance to promote its own services and preventing app developers from directing users toward lower-cost alternatives.
Existing EU procedures already incorporate finalized penalties into the general budget, reducing member state contributions either in the year they are recorded or the following year. France is now seeking explicit assurance that Google's payments will follow this mechanism. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sent a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this month requesting confirmation that the revenue will decrease national contributions, Agence Europe reported.
Member states are currently in intensive negotiations over the 2028 to 2034 budget framework, with summits scheduled for October, November and December to finalize an agreement by year's end. Deep disagreements persist regarding both the budget's overall size and its spending priorities.
The Commission's preliminary proposal sets the seven-year budget at roughly €2 trillion, equivalent to 1.26 percent of the Union's gross national income. Under this scenario, France's average annual contribution would climb from €26 billion to €36 billion, according to French Senate calculations. If the EU cannot secure additional revenue sources, France's annual bill could reach €42 billion.
The dispute unfolds as Google simultaneously contests EU enforcement on another front. On Monday, the company filed a court challenge seeking to overturn directives requiring it to share search data and make Android compatible with competing artificial intelligence assistants.
Source: The Next Web
