EU to impose €3 billion antitrust fine on Google

Google would have been fined three billion euros because, according to the European Commission, the company has abused its monopoly position in the search engine market to favor its own product comparator. The amount would be a record.

The news comes out via sources from the British newspaper The Telegraph. The research into Google’s market position has now taken seven years. The sources state that the European Commission wants to make an actual official announcement before the summer recess, possibly as early as next month.

Google is under scrutiny by the European Commission for misusing its strong position in the search engine market. The company allegedly uses the popularity of the search engine to give its other services such as price comparison sites an unfair advantage by placing them prominently in search results. The European Commission has therefore definitely not been satisfied with Google’s proposals to adjust the presentation of search results and give competitors a more prominent place.

A fine of 3 billion euros would be considerably higher than what the European Commission imposed on chip manufacturer Intel in 2009; At the time, he was fined 1.06 billion euros for pushing competitor AMD out of the market with unauthorized means. The fine of 3 billion euros that Google is hanging over its head represents just under five percent of Google’s annual turnover. The EC can fine Google a maximum of 6.6 billion euros. The American company can still challenge this fine.

At the same time, the European Commission is conducting a similar investigation into Android monopoly abuse. Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, also expressed the possibility of further fines for unfair competition in the field of travel information and maps.