The EU is reportedly delaying its antitrust penalty decision against Google

The European Union has suspended plans to immediately penalize Alphabet's Google for abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology sector, due to concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump might retaliate by undermining the transatlantic trade agreement. According to informed sources, EU regulators were originally scheduled to issue a fine to the American tech giant on September 1 and require it to modify its business model. However, as the date approached, senior officials outside the European Commission's competition department began to worry about whether the timing and severity of the decision would provoke Trump, potentially causing the U.S. leader to overturn recent progress in trade and retaliate with a new round of tariffs. Antitrust chief Teresa Ribera's team is responding to further questions regarding the draft decision, which is expected to impose a fine on Google and issue a cease-and-desist order regarding the alleged abusive behavior. Informed sources also indicated that even without a delay, this fine is expected to be the smallest that Google has ever faced in EU antitrust cases