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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Google's Madrid, Spain offices have been raided [theregister.co.uk] as part of a broad European campaign against the company's alleged tax avoidance:

Google's Madrid offices are its latest to be raided as the search giant faces a series of tax probes across the European Union. The raid was approved by a court in Madrid, Reuters reported [reuters.com], following a request by the Spanish tax authorities. Reuters cited a spokeswoman giving the company's rote statement on such matters, saying that Google had complied with all regulations and legislation regarding financial matters in every territory in which it operated, and it was also working with the Spanish tax authorities to answer its questions.

The Spanish raid follows similar action in France [theregister.co.uk], where Google was alleged to have underpaid tax by £1.2bn. Meanwhile the UK earlier this year made a £130m settlement [theregister.co.uk] with Google, averaging a mere £13m a year in tax paid for the duration of a dispute over accounts for revenues booked in the UK.

Back in the States, Senator Elizabeth Warren has been railing against Silicon Valley companies [theregister.co.uk]:

Potential vice-president and Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren has accused tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google of undermining competition and using their political clout to kill off efforts to place limits on them. Giving the keynote [senate.gov] [PDF] at a one-day conference [newamerica.org] titled "America's Monopoly Problem," the senator warned: "Today, in America, competition is dying." She cited a number of industries including Wall Street, the airline industry, cable companies, healthcare and livestock and pointed out that there are fewer companies in each, leading to less competition and record profits at the cost of consumer choice.

It was the tech industry, however, that bore the brunt of her criticism. "The second reason the decline in competition should cause concern is that big guys can lock out smaller guys and newer guys," she said. "Take a look at the technology sector – specifically, the battle between large platforms and small tech companies." She names names: "Google, Apple, and Amazon in many cases compete with those same small companies, so that the platform can become a tool to snuff out competition."

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