Antitrust regulators in the EU fined US giant General Electric (GE) a mammoth $58.4 million (52 million euro) on Monday for giving out misleading information regarding the takeover of LM Wind, a Danish rotor blade making company, two years ago.
When GE sought approval from the EU regulators on the LM Wind deal, it initially stated that it was not developing any other turbine other than its 6MW turbine. However, after it emerged that GE had other plans, the US conglomerate withdrew its initial application and submitted a new one — this time detailing its future projects.
Finally, the deal got EU approval by March 2017. However, four months after the approval, the EU launched an investigation on GE’s first notification. The latest fine is based on that investigation.
Back in 2017, the same commission fined Facebook (FB) for providing misleading information regarding its WhatsApp takeover.
EU vs. the big guns
Back in March, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) was under the European Union radar for alleged unfair business practices. In less than a year after being slapped a massive penalty by Brussels for misusing its Android mobile OS, the search service giant faced a new fine of $1.7 billion for breaching the competition laws related to online advertising.
Two years ago, European regulators had slapped a $2.7-billion fine after Google was found to have favored its shopping service over rivals. The latest blow came amid claims by the Google management that effective measures were being adopted to make its platform compliant with the regulatory norms.