European Union: Google fined €2.42 billion for abuse of dominance regarding comparison shopping service

On 27 June 2017, the European Commission (EC) sanctioned Google with a fine of €2.42 billion for violating EU antitrust rules. Specifically, Google abused its dominance in the search engine market by self-preferencing its own comparison shopping services over those of competitors. Google did this by directing traffic from its general search engine to its comparison shopping service. This was achieved by placing its own comparison shopping service high up in the search results while demoting rivals' services with the help of algorithms. It was concluded that Google not only has a dominant position in the general internet search market but also abused this dominance which is a violation of EU antitrust laws. The EC now ordered Google to end the anti-competitive behaviour. If Google does not comply with this order within 90 days, it will face monetary penalties of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, with Alphabet being Google's parent company.