The European Commission fined Google 2.4 billion euros for violating antitrust rules

Last October, the European Commission announced the possible imposition of a fine on Google in the amount of 10% of its turnover. Violations, according to European officials, consisted in abusing the company by its dominant position and crowding out competitors. Representatives of the European Commission did not come to this conclusion all of a sudden, the investigation into the corporation lasted for five years.

The regulators then provided journalists with several documents that said that Google was acting toughly on the market for online shopping services, promoting its own service. They demanded that the company rectify the situation so that information on competing shopping services on the Google search page is displayed along with the corporation’s own product. This was not done. Well, now the European Commission made the final decision to fine Google with the amount of 2.42 billion euros.

Error correction is given 90 days. If the problems remain, then after three months the company faces another penalty of 5% of the annual turnover of the holding Alphabet (the parent company of Google).

Representatives of the corporation have already managed to declare that with all due respect to the European Commission, the Google management cannot agree with the current conclusion.

The company has posted in its blog post, where it says that Google, creating its service for online purchases, prioritized the convenience of its product for buyers and sellers. “When you buy online, you want to find the right things quickly and easily. Advertisers want to show their products. This is why Google demonstrates product advertising, bringing together buyers and sellers, large and small companies that can be useful to each other, ”the corporation said in a statement.



Google believes that the European Commission underestimates the company's efforts to make life easier for buyers and sellers by showing advertisements for products with direct links to products. “We believe that now the search results for products are much more relevant and convenient than text ads that we showed ten years ago,” write the company representatives.

Now the company's lawyers are considering the decision of the European Commission, are studying all the important points and are preparing an appeal. According to experts, the lawsuit between the corporation and the regulator may drag on for years. In addition, representatives of other fields, including music, news and other services, can now start complaining to Google. And this will lead to even more proceedings than before.