This morning , administration regulator in Europe hit Google with a record € 2.42 billion mulct , roughly the equivalent of $ 2.7 billion US . The search railway locomotive party was found to be manipulating lookup results to favor its own shopping service , a assault of antitrust laws . And if it does n’t fix the trouble within 90 day it faces an additional € 12.5 million amercement per day .
“ Google abused its market place potency as a hunting engine to further its own comparison shopping service in lookup outcome , whilst demoting those of challenger , ” said Margrethe Vestager , appendage of the European Commission in burster of contest , in a press conference broadcastlive online . “ This is not competition on the merit and is illegal under EU antitrust rules . ”
The ruling has been age in the making , with the European Commission first get off a missive to Google about the matter in 2015 . Vestager order that they studied 1.2 billion search inquires before they reached their determination that Google was below the belt manipulating results .
“ We ’ve had many exchange with Google to hear their views , ” Vestager allege . “ And we have had many exchanges with customers and competitors , and some of them , some US company , were involved as complainants . And hundreds of companies took the clip to answer to our questionnaire . ”
Google pushed back in a statement , insisting that the company is simply providing the dependable service possible to its search engine client .
“ When you shop online , you want to find the products you ’re looking for quickly and well . And advertisers want to advertize those same products . That ’s why Google express shopping advertizing , plug in our users with thousands of advertizer , large and pocket-sized , in ways that are useful for both , ” a Google spokesperson said .
“ We respectfully disagree with the conclusions foretell today . We will review the Commission ’s determination in point as we conceive an appeal , and we face ahead to continuing to make our case , ” the statement continued .
As just a handful of for the most part American fellowship have become global tech monopoly , regulators in the US have done small to discourage anticompetitive practices . But that ’s not the face in Europe , where governments have take the lead to ostensibly open up up byplay like internet search engines . The most prominent graphic in theEU reportshows just how dominant Google is as a search railway locomotive .
The EU has two other open anti - militant inquires into Android and research advertising , according to Vestager . There was also treatment of other “ verticals ” like Google Images being investigate in the hereafter , though it was n’t directly clear what that particular service might be investigated for .
“ As a result of Google ’s illegal practices and the distortions to competitor , Google ’s comparability shopping service has made meaning market share addition at the expense of rivals , ” said the EU report . “ This has deprived European consumers of the benefits of competition on the merit , namely unfeigned pick and excogitation . ”
[ European Commission ]
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