The search-engine giant Google has been punished by EU regulators with a record €2.4 billion fine for violating anti-trust rules. The fine is the largest doled out by the European Commission for a monopoly abuse case which followed a seven-year-long investigation.
Originally, Google could have been slapped with a charge of up to €6 billion based on its yearly turnover. However, the amount has notably decreased for the seven-year probe. The European Commission dealt with dozens of complaints from US and European competitors who claimed that the company abused its search market dominance to give its shopping service an advantage over other retailers and create a monopoly over consumers. The EU anti-monopoly regulator found irrefutable evidence that Google deliberately redirects users’ searches to its own shopping and travel services and maps. The EC verdict reads that among breaches are manipulation of search results, borrowed content from web resources of competitors, contracts which restrict competitors’ opportunities to use other platforms, and contracts with advertisers which bar access to competitors’ services.
Google immediately rejected the commission’s decision and signaled its intention to appeal to the European Court of Justice.
