"Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon were fined a combined $7.8bn (£6.2bn) in 2025 for breaches of competition and privacy rules, according to a new Proton report. And while that sounds like a hefty number, in practice, it would have taken the four companies just 28 days and 48 minutes to pay the entire sum using their free cash flow. That calculation points to the enforcement problem facing regulators on both sides of the Atlantic."
"According to ths report, Alphabet topped the list. Google racked up more than $4.2bn in penalties last year, including a $3.5bn EU fine for favouring its own ad services and a $381m sanction from France over Gmail advertising and cookie consent. Even so, Proton has estimated it would have taken Alphabet just over three weeks to clear the bill. Meanwhile, Amazon saw the sharpest increase. Its fines surged from $57m in 2024 to $2.5bn in 2025,"
"The reason fines don't have quite the impact they should for these tech titans, is simply cash flow. Apple generated almost $99bn in free cash flow in the year to September 2025, equivalent to more than $11m an hour. Meanwhile, Alphabet produced $73.6bn, or $8.4m an hour. Amazon, on the other hand, despite thinner margins, still generated more than $10bn. On those numbers, Apple could have paid all of its 2025 fines in just over three days. Meta's would have taken less than two."
Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon were fined a combined $7.8bn in 2025 for breaches of competition and privacy rules. The four firms could have paid the total using free cash flow in 28 days and 48 minutes combined. Alphabet accounted for over $4.2bn in penalties, including a $3.5bn EU fine and a $381m sanction from France. Amazon's fines rose to $2.5bn in 2025 from $57m the prior year. Apple accumulated $851m across four rulings in Europe and South Korea and Meta reached $228m after an EU decision on its ad model. Cumulative fines since 2022 have passed $21bn. Massive free cash flow makes these penalties financially minor.
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