Google faces billion euro EU fine

GOOGLE faces a fine of more than a billion euros [£870million] for allegedly skewing search results to boost its own online shopping business.

Google’s shopping service allows users to search for an item such as ‘blue shoes’ and immediately brings up pictures that fit the description, with prices and links to websites so they can buy them.

Many people use the service by clicking on the ‘shopping’ tab on Google’s search page, bringing up dozens of results. However, Google also displays its ‘shopping’ results prominently at the top of the page when people do normal web searches – far above any mention of rivals like Foundem.co.uk and kelkoo. com. The European Commission has said Google appears to be taking ‘unfair advantage’ of its dominant market position and is expected to levy the massive fine in the next few weeks.

The penalty could be as large as £7billion, under EU rules which state that it can fine companies up to a tenth of their annual income.

In 009 Intel had to pay £948million for anti-competitive practices. More than 90 per cent of web searches by Europeans are done via Google.