The EU competition authorities have imposed a fine of € 1.49 billion on the US Internet giant Google for abusing a dominant position in online advertising.
The US company „through restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites“ prevented competitors from placing „advertisements on these websites,“ the European Commission said today. Google has now stopped the illegal action.
Disruption of other providers in search engine advertising
When search advertising in the service AdSense for Search, other providers have been illegally disabled, said the EU Commission. AdSense for Search allows other websites to include Google search masks and provide compensation.
Google’s advertising business collects the lion’s share of the proceeds of the parent company Alphabet. In the final quarter of 2018, the company earned around nine billion dollars (7.9 billion euros) thanks to gushing advertising revenue. Sales rose sharply to $ 39.3 billion. But the hefty growth was also offset by a sharp increase in spending – especially for infrastructure.
„We have always known that healthy and prosperous markets are in the public interest. We have already made a number of changes to our products to meet the concerns of the EU Commission, „said Google manager Kent Walker. „In the coming months, we’re planning further updates to make our competitors in Europe more visible.“
As early as 2017, imposed a record penalty
The Brussels authority has been targeting Google’s business behavior for quite some time. In 2017, the Commission imposed a fine of € 2.42 billion on abuse of its dominant position in product ads in search results. Due to competition restrictions with the Smartphone system Android 2018 even the record penalty of 4.34 billion euro would become due.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager pointed out that she was targeting US technology companies in particular. She pointed to billions of penalties against a truck maker cartel whose members came from Europe. The EU welcomes US companies doing business in Europe. But they would have to follow the rules like everyone else, otherwise penalties would be imminent.
