Europe Fines Google $1.7 Billion for Abusing Advertising Dominance

Top EU antitrust regulators have fined Google $1.7 billion for abusing its dominance in the online advertising market, bringing the search giant's total fines in Europe to $9.4 billion since 2018.<br><br>The fine announced Wednesday by the EU's executive Commission is the third imposed on Google by the EU since 2018 when it imposed a $5 billion penalty following an investigation prompted by complaints from rivals such as Oracle and Telia.<br><br>EU officials said Google's business practices made it harder for other companies to compete, ultimately denying European consumers choices, sometimes even the best prices, and services.<br><br>Google "abused its dominant position" by restricting certain third-party websites from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors, said Margrethe Vestager, the Commission's competition commissioner.<br><br>The EU's antitrust regulators will still monitor Google's business practices, and could yet impose even more fines.<br><br>**Brief summary of the article, in case you want to skip it :)<br><br>€1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) fine imposed on Google by the EU regulators for abuse of power in the online advertising market.<br><br>Google had a policy of excluding rival search engines like Bing and Yahoo from being displayed on third-party websites in Google’s search engine.<br><br>They are charged with restricting the websites from displaying search ads from their competitors.<br><br>The EU says that Google's abuse still prevents rivals from being able to compete.<br><br>The EU regulators claim that Google's abuse will deny consumers the best prices, etc.<br><br>This is not the first time that Google has been in trouble for this. Since 2018 they have received over €8 billion ($9 billion) in fines.<br><br>The EU says they will continue to monitor Google's business practices.