EU charges Google with hampering competition
The European Union has formally charged Google with damaging competition by taking advantage of its position and threatened the US Internet behemoth with hefty penalties.
On Wednesday, the bloc raised the prospect of the company being slapped with a fine of more than USD 6 billion for abusing its dominance as Europe's top search engine.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it had sent a formal "Statement of Objections" to Google, charging it with "systematically favoring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages."
Comparison shopping enables consumers to filter and compare products based on price, features, and other criteria.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the aim was to ensure that "companies operating in Europe, wherever they may be based, do not artificially deny European consumers as wide a choice as possible or stifle innovation."
"In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules."
Google has 10 weeks to reply on this count, she said.
The commission also said it would open a separate anti-trust investigation into Google's Android operating system, which dominates the global mobile phone market.
"Smartphones, tablets and similar devices play an increasing role in many people's daily lives, and I want to make sure the markets in this area can flourish without anti-competitive constraints imposed by any company," Vestager said.
This is not the first time the European Union and Google have locked horns.
Last May, Google began letting people in Europe formally request to be "forgotten" by the search engine, caving in to a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Earlier in the month, the court had said people should have some say over the results that pop up when they conduct a search of their own name online.
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