EU To Fine Google Billions Over Skewed Shopping Ads

When it comes to taking hardline stances on unfair competition regarding companies, the EU is clearly ahead of the US. The union’s regulators are looking to fine Google billions over the tech giant’s advertising practices, which appear to skew the system in favor of its own Google Shopping service. If the fine goes through, the search engine company is going to be in heaps of trouble.

The fine is being pushed by EU antitrust head Margrethe Vestager, The New York Times reports, according to anonymous sources. As of Friday last week, the regulators were apparently in the final stages of making their decisions as to whether or not Google should be fined over what they considered to be anti-competition practices.

The sources also indicate that if indeed the regulators decide that a fine is in order, Google could be looking at a bigger number than the $1.4 billion that Intel had to fork over back in 2009 over the same case. EU officials could also force the tech company to alter its business operations within the region to provide competitors with more room to cut into Google’s corner. The move could also affect the company’s business elsewhere, as other countries might just follow suit.

Speaking of consequences, any ruling that’s disadvantageous to Google in this particular case is not going to bode well for the company. As of now, there are two other cases in Brussels that are pending, which are related to other issues that the tech giant is involved in. A fine could give the Brussels team more ammunition against Google, The Street reports.

Back in November 2016, the company tried to defend its advertising system by saying that shopping sites like Amazon were not covered by anti-competition rules with regards to Google, specifically. The company argued that customers visit Amazon directly instead of going by search engines. This failed to convince regulators.