MANIPULATORS OF SEARCH...

Google Fined Record $2.7 Billion in E.U. Antitrust Ruling

By MARK SCOTTJUNE 27, 2017

Margrethe Vestager, the European Union antitrust chief, in Brussels on Tuesday. In addition to the Google case, she has previously demanded that Apple pay $14.5 billion in back taxes in Ireland, opened an investigation into Amazon’s tax practices in Europe and raised concerns about Facebook’s dominance over people’s digital data. CreditEmmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 

Google suffered a major blow on Tuesday after European antitrust officials fined the search giant a record $2.7 billion for unfairly favoring some of its own services over those of rivals.

The penalty, of 2.4 billion euros, highlights the aggressive stance that European officials have taken in regulating many of the world’s largest technology companies, going significantly further than their American counterparts.

By levying the fine against Google — more than double the previous largest penalty in this type of antitrust case — Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, also laid claim to being the Western world’s most active regulator of digital services, an industry still dominated by Silicon Valley.

“In Europe, companies must compete on the merits regardless if they are European or not,” she said on Tuesday. “What Google has done is illegal under E.U. antitrust rules.”

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