European Commission: decision in Google AdSense case is near

Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, says the Google AdSense case will soon be concluded. The committee started that third competition case against Google in 2016. The search giant may be fined a third billion.

According to Reuters news agency, Vestager said at the Web Summit meeting in Lisbon that the investigation is nearing its end. The European Commissioner did not provide any substantive details. Her ruling indicates that the European Commission will soon reach a decision in the competition case. It could fine Google ten percent of the company’s annual revenue.

In 2016, the European Commission started the Google AdSense case. Google is accused of abusing its dominant position in the search advertising market and thereby hindering competitors.

According to the committee, Google has imposed restrictive conditions in agreements with a number of large parties that display AdSense advertisements. The parties would not be allowed to use search ads from Google’s competitors and were required to prominently display a minimum number of search ads on their websites. Competitive ads wouldn’t be placed alongside Google’s tomorrow.

The AdSense case is the European Commission’s third competition case against Google. The committee has already ruled in two other cases. In June 2017, Google was fined 2.4 billion euros for favoring its own price comparator in search results. In July this year, a fine of 4.3 billion euros followed for abuse of power with Android. Google has appealed both fines.

Vestager said in an interview in March this year that splitting Google should be an option if necessary to stem the company’s dominance. At the time, the European Commissioner said that this point ‘has not yet arrived at all’. At the time of the interview, there was still no decision in the Android competition case.