Google to fight £2.1bn fine by EU watchdog

GOOGLE has launched an appeal against a record ¤2.42bn (£2.1bn) fine from Europe’s competition watchdog for breaching antitrust rules with its online shopping service.

The Silicon Valley giant has filed an appeal with the General Court of the European Union after previously saying it ‘respectfully’ disagreed with the European Commission’s conclusions.

The penalty comes after the competition referee launched an investigation into Google Shopping seven years ago, amid complaints that it gave the service a prominent position on the internet search engine, while rival services were demoted.

The European Commission told the internet search giant in June it had 90 days to stop the practice or face a penalty of up to 5pc of the average daily turnover of the firm’s parent company, Alphabet.

The watchdog found that Google handed its comparison shopping service an illegal advantage in 13 European Economic Area countries, including in the UK.

The fine handed to Google was a significant hike on the previous record penalty of ¤1.06bn (£937m) dished out by the commission to US microchip firm Intel in 2009.