Despite its lobbying, Google can't seem to win in Europe. The French privacy watchdog has blown through the U.S. internet giant's claim to comply with data-protection legislation, and its threat to pull its news-aggregation service in the region will likely prove far less effective than the company expects.
Google's troubles with the European Union's antitrust authorities are well-known: the company was fined 2.4 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in 2017 for abusing its dominance in price-comparison services, and a further 4.3 billion euros the following year for pushing software bundles on Android phone makers. Another antitrust probe, this time involving its AdSense advertising product, is under way.