Global Tech giant fined $2.7b in anti-trust cases by the European Union

shakirudeen taiwo

June 28, 2017 10:06 AM

This fine, which is 3 percent of Alphabet’s turnover, is the biggest the EU has ever imposed on a single company in its competition and anti-trust case.

Margrethe Vestager, Director General of European Union Competition, during inquiry into Google's Anti-Trust cases.

The European Union Anti-Trust agency has slammed a record fine of $2.7 billion on the world’s most popular Internet search engine, Google for foul play during searches on the Internet and smartphones.

The fine which was issued in one of the three on-going investigations into how the company dominates Internet searches and smartphones.

According to the European Commission, the tech company has 90 days to stop its foul-play of favouring its own shopping service during online searches and using its Android mobile operating system to crush rivalry which could result in potential damages to the rival company.

This fine, which is 3 percent of Alphabet’s turnover, is the biggest the EU has ever imposed on a single company in its competition and anti-trust case. Also in 2009, Intel was also handed $1.06 billion sanctions by the EU in a similar anti-trust case.

In 2013, Alphabet also settled without penalty with the U.S anti-trust agency after agreeing to change some of its search practices. One of which is blocking rivals in an online search advertising.

The Commission also noted that Google, with a market share in searches of over 90 percent in most European countries, had given prominent placement in searches to its own comparison shopping service and demoted those of rivals in search results.

According to the European Competition Director General, Ms Margrethe Vestager: “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, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation.”

Kent Walker, Google’s General Counsel stated that: “We disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case.”

shakirudeen taiwo

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