Google could face up to $6B in fines if found in violation of European laws
WASHINGTON – The battle between Google and the European Commission intensified this week with Google giving its formal reply to the commission’s statement of objections, in which the regulators outlined their case against the global search giant.
The European antitrust inquiry, which was originally announced back in April, could see Google fined up to $6 billion.
At the time, European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said, “I’m concerned that Google has artificially boosted its presence in the comparison shopping market with the result that consumers may not necessarily see what’s most relevant for them, or that competitors may not get the commercial opportunity that their innovative services deserve.”
The EU case hinges on Google’s control of 90% of the search engine market, which regulators charge allows Google to unfairly promote its own Internet services over competitors, thereby allowing it an unfair advantage in Europe’s lucrative e-commerce market.
In Google’s formal reply to the allegations, SVP and General Counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post, “Google has always worked to improve its services, creating new ways to provide better answers and show more useful ads. We’ve taken seriously the concerns in the European Commission’s Statement of Objections that our innovations are anti-competitive. Our response provides evidence and data to show why the SO’s concerns are unfounded. We use traffic analysis to rebut claims that our ad displays and specialized organic results harmed competition by preventing shopping aggregators from reaching consumers.
“The universe of shopping services has seen an enormous increase in traffic from Google, diverse new players, new investment and expanding consumer choice,” he added. “Google delivered more than 20 billion free clicks to aggregators over the last decade in the countries covered by the SO, with free traffic increasing by 227% (and total traffic increasing even more).”
Walker concluded: “We believe that the SO’s preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics. We look forward to discussing our response and supporting evidence with the Commission, in the interest of promoting user choice and open competition.”
If Google is found to have violated EU antitrust rules it could face massive fines potentially in the multibillion-dollar range. The EU Commission has already levied huge fines against tech companies in the past, fining Intel $1.2 billion in 2009, and Microsoft $800 million in 2013.
