This morning, government regulators in Europe hit Google with a record €2.42 billion fine, roughly the equivalent of $2.7 billion US. The search engine company was found to be manipulating search results to favor its own shopping service, a violation of antitrust laws. And if it doesn’t fix the problem within 90 days…
In a win for frustrated Comcast customers everywhere, the FCC has ordered the vampiric media conglomerate to cough up $2.3 million—“the largest civil penalty assessed from a cable operator”— for sketchy billing practices.
The FCC has been conducting some major ass-kicking lately, a trend it is continuing with its latest move: slapping a $2.94 million fine, the biggest in FCC history, on a serial robocaller.
The FTC has accepted a settlement over its allegation that it repeatedly misled its users about privacy. Facebook was accused of telling users they could keep their information private and then repeatedly disclosing it anyway. Facebook won't take a fine for the privacy violations. Sigh
Leave it to the FCC to stick it to nefarious corporate overreaching: USA Today reports the FCC just slammed Google with a $25,000 fine obstructing an investigation into collecting private information about American Wi-Fi networks. That'll stop 'em!
This isn't the first time Senator Karl Kruger's proposed a ban on cellphone-use and listening to MP3 players when crossing the street. The motion didn't get passed in 2007, so let's hope the same happens again. [CBS via Gawker]
Remember when Verizon recently said "sorry" to 15 million of its cellphone customers for overcharging them to the tune of $52.8 million? So does the FCC, which just levied a massive $25 million fine against them for the error. Updated.
Getting a speeding fine is enough to drive anyone to road-rage, but Brian McCrary decided to do something entirely different with his rage. While browsing the local police department's website, he saw the domain was close to expiring...
Nine chip makers—including heavy hitters like Samsung and Hitachi—have collectively been fined $404 million by the European Commission over DRAM price fixing. Cartels: they're not just for drug lords anymore.
What started as a routine traffic stop ended with a Colorado teen doing hard time. The offense? Not returning a "House of Flying Daggers" DVD to his local library. Come on, Colorado. You're better than that.
Microsoft has agreed only to hold your personal information (read: darkest secrets] for six months, while Google and Yahoo will continue to keep them much longer to "improve search quality." By which, of course, they mean "ad revenue."
Joel Tenenbaum admitted to sharing 30 songs with Kazaa back in 2004 (Kazaa! So quaint!) and was originally fined $150,000 per song. He worked that down to "only" $22,500 per song, but that's still $675,000 in total.
Though The Pirate Bay suffered a defeat last week, the founders' latest statement is anything but defeated. They've started the years-long appeals process, and urge TPB users to download and seed as much as possible.
Ticketing red light runners is standard practice in many big cities, but Chicago is considering doing one better and scanning every car going by for up to date insurance.
