Tech giant Google has been issued with a £1.27bn fine by the European Commission for alleged illegal practices in search advertising.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for competition said in Brussels on Wednesday morning, the tech company have been accused of breaching EU antitrust laws from 2006 until 2016.
The third @Google case: @Google is fined €1,49bn for illegal practices in search advertising brokering to cement its dominant market position. They shouldn’t do that – it denied consumers choice, innovative products and fair prices.
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 20, 2019
“The third @Google case: @Google is fined €1,49bn for illegal practices in search advertising brokering to cement its dominant market position.”
“They shouldn’t do that, it denied consumers choice, innovative products and fair prices.”
She said, “Google has engaged in illegal practices when it comes to their search advertising brokering in order to cement its dominant market position.”
Last year Google was fined a record £3.9bn over restrictions on mobile phones manufacturers using Android, to drive internet traffic to Googles own search engine.
Then again in June 2017 Google were fined again, they had to pay £2.1bn for their comparison shopping service.
In January the company was hit with a £44.1m fine for breaching strict European Union rules on data protection by the French data regulator.