Google handed record €2.4bn fine for abusing market position

The European Commission said the search giant has 90 days to bring an end to its misconduct or face penalty payments of as much as five per cent of the average turnover of its parent company, Alphabet.

“Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy.

“Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors,” she 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,” she added.

The fine is the biggest ever given to a single company in an antitrust case in the EU, beating the fine handed to chipmaker Intel of €1.1bn in 2009.

The Commission said Google has given its own shopping service favourable treatment since 2008, demoting rival services in its search listings.

Kelkoo, a European shopping site, which was involved in bringing the case, welcomed the decision.

“This is a big day for the industry and consumers in Europe. With this decision, the Commission is saying that Google has broken the law and now needs to stop its abuse and allow competition back into the marketplace”, said Richard Stables, the company’s CEO.