EU fines Google £2bn for abusing its power
‘Denying Europeans genuine choice’
GOOGLE is facing tens of billions of pounds in fines in a war with Brussels over its dominance of the web.
European officials dealt the technology giant a major blow yesterday by fining it £2.1billion for skewing its search results to favour its own shopping comparison service.
The enormous penalty is more than twice the size of previous fines handed out by European competition chiefs.
But it is just the first of a string of penalties Google faces.
Brussels officials revealed yesterday that they had another 29 complaints on their books and they have already launched two full- scale investigations on the back of them.
One is looking at allegations that the US firm has made it harder for rivals to have their apps and search engines preinstalled on certain mobile phones.
Another is looking at the way Google displays adverts on rival websites.
Brussels has also opened initial investigations into the way Google orders searches for flights and hotels and it is weighing up probes into another five related cases.
If all of the probes end up attracting penalties of the same scale, Google would be forced to pay out more than £60billion. The £509billion giant will be afraid it will be forced to change the way it does business across Europe, so that it can no longer make its own services easier to find than those of its rivals.
The EU’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager yesterday vowed to ensure the company did not ‘abuse its dominance’. She accused Google of depriving Europeans of ‘genuine choice’.
‘Google’s practices have deprived millions of European customers the full benefits of competition and innovation,’ Miss Vestager said. ‘ We will monitor Google’s compliance closely so this issue will remain on our desk for some time.
‘Google gave illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service by abusing its search dominance.’
In a case that has dragged on for more than seven years and took account of 1.7billion search queries, Google was found guilty of rigging search results to promote its shopping comparison service above rivals such as kelkoo.com.
Google’s shopping service allows users to search for an item such as ‘blue shoes’ and immediately brings up pictures that fit the description, along with prices and links to websites so that they can buy them easily. Many people use the service by clicking on the ‘ shopping’ tab on Google’s search page, bringing up dozens of search results at a time.
However, Google also displays its ‘shopping’ results prominently at the top of the page when users do normal web searches – far above any mention of its rivals.
Brussels chiefs said yesterday that Google has to stop doing this within 90 days, or face fines capped at around £10million every 24 hours.
Miss Vestager said: ‘Google has to give equal treatment to rival comparison shopping services and to its own. This means it cannot simply stop doing what it is doing now and replace them with other practices that have the same effect.’
Google has 90 days to decide whether to appeal in the case. It is expected to do so given the massive financial impact of making changes to its search engine.
Google makes the vast majority of its money from selling ad space on its various websites, including its web search page and its YouTube video channel. More than 90 per cent of internet searches are done through Google, making it the gateway to the web. It also has more than half of the market for online advertising.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, said yesterday: ‘Given the evidence, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case.’
He added: ‘When the Commission asks why some comparison websites have not done as well as others, we think it should consider the many sites that have grown in this period – including platforms like Amazon and eBay.’
The case has fuelled tensions between Brussels and Washington. Miss Vestager, who also launched a £11.5billion tax avoidance claim against Apple, yesterday denied bias against US firms.
EVEN by the mad standards of our times, it’s a story to have us rubbing our eyes in disbelief. Two Romanian convicts – a cannabis farmer and a violent burglar – are wanted in their homeland after escaping to the UK without serving their sentences.
Eventually, they are arrested in Britain, where judges order their extradition. But of course they appeal, with at least one of them securing a QC’s services at public expense. The lawyer argues they can’t be kicked out because – wait for it – Romanian cells are two metres squared, not three!
Never mind that the EU country’s prisons offer inmates phone facilities, walking and smoking areas, unlocked cells during the day and up to ten hours’ visiting a month.
No, the QC says the convicts have a human right to cells at least three metres squared. So their extradition is on hold until assurances are received from Romania.
Do you ever get the feeling that foreign criminals take our legal system for a laughing-stock – and with good reason? HOW on Earth is it that, 14 days after the horrific blaze, nobody in officialdom can say whether the cladding around Grenfell Tower met building regulations? The Left was quick to blame cuts by the local Tory council, profiteering by private firms and even wealth inequality. But if no one can understand the safety rules, doesn’t this suggest the cause of the blaze was institutional incompetence? AFTER years of silence, our watchdog wakes up to Thames Water’s appalling failures and corporate greed, issuing a vague warning in the arcane pages of Utility Week that the foreign-owned firm should mend its ways. Meanwhile, EU regulator Margrethe Vestager shows her displeasure over Google’s improper practices… by fining the internet giant a cool £2.1billion. One thing’s for sure. After Brexit, we need watchdogs of the calibre of Miss Vestager.