The European Union on Friday fined Google $3.5 billion for breaching competition rules by favouring its own digital advertising services. The latest fine marks the tech giant’s fourth major antitrust penalty in the bloc.
Responding to the development, Google said it would appeal against the penalty and called the decision “wrong”. “It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Reuters quoted Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s global head of regulatory affairs, as saying.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top competition enforcer, also ordered Google to end its “self-preferencing practices” and address “conflicts of interest” across the advertising technology supply chain. The decision comes more than two years after Brussels first announced charges against the company.
(More details to follow)