Google has just beaten the record. This is not a record that you can praise. Technological giant has just been fined a record $ 2.42 billion fine. The European Union has been punished for breaking antitrust laws. The company has the right to appeal against this decision, so you can expect a long-standing battle in court
What has Google been punished for? The main culprit of all confusion is to be Google Shopping - built into the search engine price comparison tool. According to the antitrust committee, Google showed results in a way that deprived the traffic of competitive price comparison pages.
Margrethe Vestager, EU Competition Commissioner, stressed that the company used its dominant position in the market to promote its own price comparison tool in stores at the expense of competition. But she did not fail to mention Google's merits in bringing innovative products to market. However, this was not enough for the EC to waive the penalty imposed.
"What Google did was illegal for EU antitrust laws," Vestager said, quoted by Verge . - [Google] has deprived other companies the chance to compete with each other for innovation and benefits. ed.]. However, most importantly, it deprived European consumers of the freedom to choose services and to take full advantage of innovative solutions - she concluded.
This is the highest punishment imposed by the European Commission so far. Earlier, the notorious record holder was Intel, who in 2009 was fined a $ 1 billion fine. Two more cases are going on between Google and the EU. One is for AdSense ads, the other is for an agreement between Moutain View and Android smartphone manufacturers.
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On his official blog, Google has posted a response regarding the penalty imposed. The entry indicates that he does not intend to submit a weapon:
(...) We think that the European Commission decision on online shopping does not appreciate the value of these fast and easy connections. While some product comparison sites want Google to show them in a more prominent place, our data indicates that users prefer links that direct them directly to the product they need and not to sites where they need to re-search. We believe our current product search results ("shopping ads") are a much more useful and improved version of a decade-old advertising campaign. Displaying ads that include pictures, ratings, and prices works for the benefit of us, our advertisers, and above all our users. We show them only if your opinion shows that they are relevant. Thousands of European sellers use such ads to compete with larger companies like Amazon and eBay.
Kent Walker, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Google
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