The E.U. has just slammed Google with a $1.49 billion antitrust fine, relating to its search and brokering business.
The European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the Marketing company took to illegal practices to retain its top position as an advertising platform.
“Today’s decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop website’s using brokers other than the AdSense platform,” she said.
“There was no reason for Google to include these restrictive clauses in its contracts other than to keep rivals out of the market,” she added.
Margrethe also explained that after investigating over 200 contract agreements, the commission found some anti-competitive restriction which required Google’s ads to have premium placement.
Google’s SVP of Global Affairs has responded, saying
“We’ve always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone’s interest. We’ve already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the Commission’s concerns. Over the next few months, we’ll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe.”
It is recalled that this is the third time the EU would be fining the Search Giant on antitrust violations.
