EU fines tech giant Google for breaching EU antitrust rules

The European Commission (EU) has fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing. But 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. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

It says that "The company must now end the conduct within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company."

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Google has "respectfully" disagreed with the EU action.

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today (Tuesday). We will review the (European) Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case," Kent Walker, the company's senior vice-president and general counsel, said in a statement.