It seems that in EU customer protection revolves around making sure one doesn't get scammed out of their money, warranties are honored in time, things delivered actually match what was described at time of purchase etc.
All of this falls apart if the goods/service is free... And one can't really argue Google is a monopoly with regards to email services (search and ads are quite separate).
So I doubt EU could do anything about it unless one uses paid services.
> All of this falls apart if the goods/service is free...
That was very true, but I think this is changing. Recent dealings with Facebook and the privacy regulations give some hope there.
> And one can't really argue Google is a monopoly with regards to email services
EU regulations do not care about monopolies. The main issue is abuse of dominant position, which Google definitely has. The mobile carriers is an appropriate comparison, I think. None of them has anything like a dominant position across the continent, but their collective behaviour was suboptimal and costly for the customers, which was a strong enough motivation for the EC to intervene. I can see a blanket regulation about the processes that need to be put in place to close or recover accounts. In the same way that these companies are required to have dedicated people for GDPR requests.
Also note that EU regulations are much less concerned about random customers than American laws. The EU framework is all about competition and how to preserve it, under the arguable belief that quantitatively increasing competition will benefit the final customers.
All of this falls apart if the goods/service is free... And one can't really argue Google is a monopoly with regards to email services (search and ads are quite separate).
So I doubt EU could do anything about it unless one uses paid services.