- Marjorie van Elven
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1,49 billion euros: that’s how much the European Commission has fined
Google for breaching EU antitrust rules one more time. According to the
Commission, Google forced its AdSense clients to sign contracts prohibiting
them from accepting advertising from rival search engines.
Commenting on the fine, commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of
competition policy, said in a statement: “Today the Commission has fined
Google 1.49 billion euros for illegal misuse of its dominant position in
the market for brokering online search adverts. Google has cemented its
dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive
pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on
third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. The
misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility
to compete on the merits and to innovate — and consumers the benefits of
competition”.
Between 2006 and 2016, Google held a share bigger than 70 percent of the
online search advertising market in Europe. In some European countries,
over 90 percent of general searches are made on Google.
This is not the first time the tech giant receives a substantial fine
for breaching European law. In 2017 the company was fined a record 2.4
billion euros for “systematically favoring” its own shopping comparison
service, Google Shopping, in search results. After a seven-year
investigation, the European Commission concluded that Google promoted
Google Shopping results “regardless of their merits”, demoting those of
competitors.
