Google Gets $2.7 Billion Fine By EU Over Anti-Competitive Practices

The European Union Commission has had its eyes set on Google for the last few years due to allegations that it favors its own shopping sites over competitors on its search engine. A few weeks ago, analysts were expecting that the tech firm would be fined an amount greater than the $1.4 billion that Intel had to pay for a similar case. As it turns out, Google now needs to pay a good $1.3 billion more.

This fine marks one of the largest that the EU has charged any company for anti-competitive practices, The Wrap reports. In a statement by EU’s antitrust head Margrethe Vestager, the fine is apparently equivalent to how much damage Google has done to its competitors.

“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,” Vestager said. “What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules.”

For those who haven’t been following the development, Google was basically accused of promoting its own shopping sites over those like Amazon. When users type words like “online shopping,” for example, they would get top results that are directly affiliated with Google.

This is a clear violation of EU’s competition laws, which indicates that companies cannot undermine competitors using their services or products as leverage. By making sure that its own online shopping options are more prominent than that of others, Google was found to be guilty of violating said laws.

As to why the fine needed to be so big, it would seem that the company’s $90 billion revenue for 2016 is to blame, Tech Crunch reports. The EU commission basically crunched some numbers based on what Google earned from the 13 economic areas of the union. By the final tally, it was decided that $2.7 billion is the appropriate fine.