Google hit with a fine of €1.5 bn by the EU for illegal practices in search advertising

Google has been hit with a third antitrust fine in the European Union, this time for €1.5 bn, for illegal practices in search advertising. It was found that Google had restrictive contracts which were forced on customers through the AdSense business. Before this, Google has had to pay a fine of €4.3 bn last year and €2.4 bn in 2017. European Union’s competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google had misused its market-dominant position, yet again. According to Vestager, Google’s practices denied other companies the ability to compete on merit. [caption id=“attachment_6031241” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] A woman hovers a mouse over the Google and European Union logos. Image: Reuters[/caption] “Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites . . . The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate — and consumers the benefits of competition,” said Vestager. With this third fine, the sum total of fines Google has paid in the EU stands at €8.2 bn. Last year, it had to pay a fine of **€4.3 bn for abusing its market dominance in mobile space** and in 2017, Google had to pay a fine of **€2.4 bn for manipulating shopping search results.**

The third @Google case: @Google is fined €1,49bn for illegal practices in search advertising brokering to cement its dominant market position. They shouldn’t do that - it denied consumers choice, innovative products and fair prices.

— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) March 20, 2019

According to the EU officials, since 2006, Google had prevented its AdSense customers from allowing any rival search engines on their sites. While originally, AdSense did not allow placement of rival search engines, in 2009 Google allowed that as long as Google search box was visible as well. In 2016, these terms were removed. AdSense has been losing importance over the years and accounts for less than 20 per cent of Google’s total ad revenue according to Bloomberg.