a better result over another result,” it said in a
press release.
Google said it made changes in 2017 to comply
with the European Commission’s decision.
“Our approach has worked successfully for more
than three years, generating billions of clicks for
more than 700 comparison shopping services,” a
Google statement said.
The fine was part of an effort by European
regulators to curb the online giant’s clout on
the continent. It was followed by two other
blockbuster antitrust penalties against Google,
totaling 8.25 billion euros ($9.5 billion), which
the company also is appealing. The fines are a
drop in the bucket for Google’s parent company,
Alphabet Inc., which earned $182 billion in
revenue last year.
The penalties were early salvos in the EU’s
crackdown on tech companies, which has
expanded to include other Silicon Valley digital
giants. The commission this year launched fresh
antitrust investigations into whether Google
and Facebook are stifling competition in digital
and classified advertising markets. It’s also
investigating Apple over payments and Amazon
over concerns it’s unfairly competing against
independent merchants on its platform with its
own products.
Meanwhile, the EU also is drafting new digital
rules to rein in online services by making
them more accountable for illegal goods and
harmful content found on their platforms, with
the threat of fines worth up to 10% of global
annual revenue.
Wednesday’s ruling can still be appealed to the
European Court of Justice, the bloc’s highest