4.6 Trillion Won Google Fine to Go Into EU Budget... Member State Contributions to Decrease

Equivalent to 2% of This Year's EU Budget
Germany to Save 1.7 Trillion Won
Customs Fees Imposed on Small Parcels

The European Union (EU) has received a fine of 4.6 billion euros (approximately 7.8 trillion won) from US big tech company Google. This amount accounts for 2% of the EU’s entire annual budget, and the member states’ required contributions are expected to decrease as a result.

According to the European edition of Politico on July 17 (local time), Google fought a legal battle with the European Commission for eight years, but ultimately failed to overturn the fine. After the European Court of Justice confirmed the penalty earlier this month, Google recently made full payment of the 4.6 billion euros.

Google office in London, UK. Photo by AP News Agency

The European Commission imposed the fine in 2018, stating that Google had excluded competitors by requiring smartphone manufacturers to preinstall its own search engine and Chrome browser as a condition for including the Google Play app store.

Google filed a lawsuit claiming the penalty was unfair, but ultimately lost the case.

The fine paid by Google will be incorporated into the EU's joint finances. A spokesperson for the European Commission told Politico that the upcoming amendment to the EU budget, to be announced in the second half of this year, will include the additional revenue of 4.6 billion euros.

The spokesperson explained, “This has the effect of reducing the gross national income (GNI)-based contributions that member states are required to pay.”

The EU budget is mostly funded by contributions from member state governments and is used for key EU policies such as agricultural subsidies and support for low-income regions.

For EU member states facing increased fiscal burdens due to rising energy prices from the Middle East war and sluggish economic growth, the Google fine is expected to help boost their fiscal capacity.

Germany, which is responsible for about a quarter of the total EU budget, is expected to save around 1 billion euros (approximately 1.7 trillion won) as a result of the Google fine.

Since earlier this month, the EU has also been imposing a customs clearance fee of 3 euros (about 5,000 won) per small overseas parcel, primarily incoming from China.

Seventy-five percent of the customs fee revenue goes into the EU budget, while the remaining 25% is allocated to each member state government.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.