Google is Facing a 3 Billion Euro Fine in EU Anti-Trust Case

Google could be fined a record breaking 3 billion euros, surpassing the biggest anti-trust fine to date, which was 1.1 billion euros charged against Intel.

It’s facing charges for abusing a monopoly on web search, which is mere weeks after a seven year investigation about the company’s search engine was finished. Those close to the matters said that the officials were trying to announce this before summer holidays and might do so within the next month. They also said that the bill for Google for removing online competition wasn’t finalized.

The company has been previously charged for illegally promoting their price comparison service in the general search results while denying traffic to their smaller rivals. Meanwhile, another new investigation is also looking into Google’s Android OS for monopoly abuse.

Google could face a fine of up to 6.6 billion euros

Legal sources added that the fine Google will have to pay over shopping comparison will likely take into account the fact that the Google abused their monopoly on the general web search for several years. The European commission will also make an example of Google because of the changes it made to its algorithms during the investigation which made it even harder for competition to compete against Google.

Aside from the fine, the company will also be banned from continuing to change search results to favor itself against its rivals. They have resisted making changes in their algorithms, which is the core of their business, and made proposals to redesign the presentation of its results to satisfy the regulators, which proved unsuccessful.

The former competition commissioner agreed to a deal without pressing official charges but the present commissioner, Ms. Margarethe Vestager, is much more aggressive in comparison. The fine on Google will show a rejection of the arguments put forward by the company that it has successful competitors in eBay and Amazon.

Google did not comment on the situation but it might choose to resist the fine and the stricter search rules in the European Court of Justice.

A techie, gamer, and Senior Editor at ProPakistani.



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