In a major setback in the antitrust case, European Commission has fined Google a whooping €2.4 billion for allegedly abusing “dominance as search engine by giving illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service.”
Google has been facing allegations that the American tech giant violated anti-trust policy in Europe by favoring its own search results. Now the company is asked to end the conduct within 90 days’ time. The Commission also warned if the search giant failed to pay the amount, it would face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: “Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference in our lives. That’s a good thing. But Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results and demoting those of competitors.
On its official website, European Commission has published a press release detailing how Google has done “illegal” under EU antitrust rules.
To be updated…
