Google’s $2.8 billion fine cannot be avoided

The European Commission made an investigation decision in 2017 and found that Google’s preference for its own shopping price comparison service in search results was a violation.

Specifically, when users find certain products through Google search, the Google search algorithm puts their own shopping price comparison service website at the forefront of the search results.

Moreover, the Google search engine algorithm may also place the rankings of competitors’ websites behind, which causes the Google Shopping price comparison service website to kill all competitors in seconds.

After investigation, the European Commission imposed a penalty of 2.42 billion euros (approximately $2.8 billion) on Google on the basis of unfair competition and also asked Google to stop illegal activities.

Google never believed that it had violated the rules and did not submit to the punishment after being punished. Google had objections to the punishment and therefore appealed to the second-highest court in Europe.

However, after deliberation, the court held that it is the actual situation to prefer its own service on its search result page to make it rank better through more favorable display and positioning.

At the same time, Google also downgraded the search results of competitors’ services on the search results page through a ranking algorithm. Therefore, Google has violated the rules of breaking away from market competition.

In the end, the court found that Google must be punished to curb unfair competition. If Google is still unwilling to pay, it can only appeal to the High Court of the European Union.

A spokesperson for the European Commission said that the latest court ruling conveyed a clear message that Google’s actions were illegal and that this ruling provided the market with necessary legal clarity.

The European Commission will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to deal with unfair competition issues. In addition, the European Union has launched a formal investigation on Google’s advertising business in June.

Via: The NewYork Times