Brief: Google slapped with record-breaking $2.7b antitrust fine by EU regulator

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The news:

• The European Commission – the European Union’s top administrative body and antitrust regulator – has fined Google US$2.73 billion for anti-competitive business practices. The Commission found that the US company’s web search function gave undue prominence to its own price comparison service in search results.
• When users enter a query into Google’s search engine, Google Shopping price comparisons appear higher in the list of search results than those of competing services which, unlike Google Shopping, are subject to search algorithms demoting them.
• Evidence considered by the Commission shows that the most highly ranked competitor service appears, on average, on the fourth page of search results produced by Google’s search engine.
• The Commission has demanded that Google end this conduct within 90 days, or face additional penalty payments of up to 5 percent of the average daily global turnover of its parent company Alphabet.

Why it matters:

• This is the largest financial penalty that the Commission has issued for antitrust offenses since it fined Microsoft US$613 million for anti-competitive licensing practices in relation to Windows Media Player back in 2004.
• Google is also currently the subject of two other European Commission antitrust probes, which relate to its AdSense advertising business and its Android operating system.

Converted from euro. Rate: US$1 = €0.89.

Source: Bloomberg.