Large technology companies needed only 16 days and 21 hours to pay the more than $8.2 billion in fines accumulated throughout 2024 for violating their privacy and competition rules.
This is the surprising find from Proton, the Swiss privacy company behind one of the best VPN and secure email services on the market. The team compared the free cash flow availability of the big four (Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta) with the penalties these companies received throughout the year around the world.
The results are amazing. In 2024, the fines against Big Tech were, in fact, the largest ever imposed, surpassing those of 2023 and 2022 (more than $3 billion each year) combined. The real consequences, however, remain minuscule. As Proton says, privacy and competition sanctions remain “simply a cost of doing business for companies whose revenues are typically greater than countries’ GDP.”
A drop in Big Tech cash flow
For the third consecutive year, Google was the company most affected by fines in 2024, reaching the total amount 2.9 billion dollars. However, using your free cash flow (the cash a company can generate after unavoidable situations) bills), You can pay all your fines after about three weeks of activity (16 days, 21 hours and 25 minutes to be precise).
Apple did the same with a total of $2.1 billion to pay, which would take the big tech company about a week of cash flow. The same goes for microsoftwith more 1.6 billion dollars in fines.
Goal (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) would need just under two weeks to pay its 1.42 billion dollars sanctions. Amazon was one of the least affected companies, registering little more $57 million. However, it’s highly unlikely that Jeff Bezos lost any sleep, as a single day’s gains would erase the penalty entirely.
According to Jurgita Miseviciute, Proton’s Director of Public Policy, it is time for regulators to start speaking “the language of Big Tech.”
She said: “You don’t prevent a bank robbery by arming guards with a pen. We need to create an environment where tech companies, no matter where they are founded, can thrive and not be hindered by the biggest players in the market. And “Strict competition legislation (law enforcement) is vital for this. Fines may not be enough, big tech companies must end their anti-competitive practices.”
On almost every occasion in 2024, big tech companies faced sanctions for violating their customers’ privacy or for antitrust practices.
Google received the largest fine this year ($2.5 billion) in Europe in October, for example, for abusing its market dominance to benefit its own shopping recommendations in Google search. The company could use its free cash flow to pay this huge fine in full in about two weeks.
The smallest fine the company received was $2,000 issued by South Korea for collecting user data without their consent. It would take Google only seven seconds to kill it.
According to Miseviciute, privacy and competition are two sides of the same coin: taking advantage of people’s most valuable asset – their personal data – by offering “free” services in exchange.
She said: “This exploitative business model benefits no one but big tech companies and erodes both privacy and choice. But why would they care about a fine for wrongdoing that is equivalent to a parking fine for you or for me?”
With Big Tech fines still representing a small drop in Big Tech’s cash flow, Proton is now urging lawmakers around the world to hold Big Tech accountable and ensure a fair and competitive digital market for all. .
