The European Commission announced today that it had hit Google with a $ 2.72 billion antitrust penalty for abusing its dominance in search to boost its comparison shopping service.
“Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That’s a good thing,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EC commissioner in charge of competition policy, said in a statement. “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.”
In addition to paying the fine, Google was ordered to end the practice within 90 days, or face additional financial penalties.
More to come.
