dufus Posted June 27, 2017 Share Posted June 27, 2017 Google’s record-breaking 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) European Union fine could end up being just a fraction of the costs from the EU’s demand that it stop skewing search results to favor its own shopping site. While the penalty will barely make a dent in its $90 billion cash hoard, Google faces the prospect of less ad revenue and a regulatory backlash targeting other services from maps to restaurant reviews as well as the threat of even more penalties. The search-engine giant will have "the sword of Damocles hanging over its head,” said Jay Modrall, a lawyer for Norton Rose Fulbright in Brussels. That’s because it’s no longer Google’s choice on how it makes changes to allay EU concerns. Instead, it’s "under a legal requirement to do so and under notice that if its commitments are not sufficient, it’ll be fined even more." EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager’s decision marks the end of a seven-year probe fueled by complaints from small shopping websites as well as bigger names, including News Corp., Axel Springer SE and Microsoft Corp. European politicians have called on the EU to sanction Google or even break it up while U.S. critics claim regulators are targeting successful American firms. Alphabet Inc.’s Google must "stop its illegal conduct" and give equal treatment to rival price-comparison services, according to a binding order from the European Commission. It’s up to Google to choose how it does this and inform the EU of its plans within 60 days. Vestager gave Google a 90-day ultimatum to find ways to give equal treatment to smaller price-comparison services that compete with the Google Shopping ads that appear when people search for products. The EU will also monitor Google for five years and can force the company to pay additional fines of up to 5 percent of its daily revenue if it doesn’t comply. Read more: Google’s Seven Years of Antitrust Tribulation in Europe Regulators are trying to avoid a repeat of a messy battle they had with Microsoft which was slow to implement strict changes ordered by the EU. Regulators have deliberately left “very abstract” guidelines on how to shape the equal treatment Google has been ordered to offer small shopping rivals, said Nicolas Petit, a law professor at the University of Liege. The European Commission's decision on online shopping: the other side of the story https://t.co/OMsf6wqnjn — Google Europe (@googleeurope) June 27, 2017 Google’s lawyer Kent Walker said the company respectfully disagrees with the EU’s conclusions and will consider a court appeal, according to a blog post. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-27/google-gets-record-2-7-billion-eu-fine-for-skewing-searches?utm_campaign=news&utm_medium=bd&utm_source=applenews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pc71520 Posted June 28, 2017 Share Posted June 28, 2017 I hope more multinational giants get fined, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted June 28, 2017 Administrator Share Posted June 28, 2017 One side it's good to see them being corrected for what I guess is misconduct, on the other side, it's sad to see that a lot of other things from them, probably more important than this, are getting ignored here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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