EU Fines Canon $2.9 bn

[Mike Farley]

Nothing to do with its camera division, but arising from malfeasance during Canon's takeover of Toshiba's medical unit. That $2.9 bn represents 10% of Canon's annual revenues.

Full story at Reuters - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-an ... SKBN19S09J.

The EU has also recently imposed a €2.4 bn penalty on Google for promoting its own price comparison service over those from competitors. What I have yet to find out is what the EU does with these large sums of money. Combined, these two fines probably represent around 3-4% of the EU's total budget.

[Steve B]

The fines do go into the EU's budget. This is contrary to UK regulators where fines typically go into the Consolidated Fund (the Treasury's bank account). This is designed to mitigate the perverse incentive for regulators to line their own coffers. There are exceptions, such as where fines from banks in certain cases are distributed to good causes. An EU fine may trigger a class action which may lead to consumers affected receiving damages.

This is my understanding of the situation but I stand to be corrected by our member who works at Which?

Steve