The rise and spread of the Internet has accelerated the global flows of money, technology and information that are increasingly perceived as a challenge to the traditional regulatory powers of nation states and the effectiveness of their constitutions. The acceleration of these flows poses new legal and political problems to their regulation and control, as shown by recent conflicts between Google and the European Union (EU).
This book investigates the transnational constitutional dimension of recent conflicts between Google and the EU in the areas of competition, taxation and human rights. More than a simple case study, it explores how the new conflicts originating from the worldwide expansion of the Internet economy are being dealt with by the institutional mechanisms available at the European level. This analysis of these conflicts exposes the tensions and contradictions between, on the one hand, legal and political systems that are limited by territory, and on the other hand, the inherently global functioning of the Internet.
