European Commission fines Google $2.7B in antitrust ruling

The European Commission fined Google Inc. a record $2.7 billion on Tuesday for breaching antitrust rules in favoring its own search services over its competitors.


Google has 90 days to end the conduct or face penalties of up to 5 percent of the average daily revenue of its parent company, Alphabet Inc. The EC ruled that Google violated Europe's competition rules by showing preference to its own online shopping service over those of rivals.

"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. What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate," EU competition policy chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement Tuesday.
 [upi.com]
27/6/17