A massive €2.4 billion fine has been imposed on Google by the European Union for breaking an antitrust law. The decision has been taken after a seven-year investigation on the company’s search algorithm and EU reached to the judgment that Google has been using its position as a search engine and promoting its own shopping services.
The fine imposed is record breaking by EU, earlier the record fine was imposed on Intel in 2009 and was of €1 billion.
The case states that Google showed results from Google Shopping and results of its competitors were far behind depriving other sites of traffic. EU urged that Google is overwhelmingly dominant in Europe and it should not be allowed undermine its competitors.
Now in order to comply with the decision, Google will have to change its algorithms to provide equal benefits to rival companies also. EU also said that if the company does not end its current conduct then it will face penalties 5% of its average turnover.
In a press statement, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said:
What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.
On the other hand, Google has completely denied the accusations on its algorithm and may appeal against the decision in EU courts.
This is not the first time Google has faced EU antitrust allegations, it is currently being investigated for two more antitrust allegations, one centering its AdSense business and other regarding the deal it makes with Android manufacturers.
EU has been accused by US companies of giving unfair decisions against them. But EU has denied any such accusations.