EU hits Google with $1.68 billion fine
(Google / Alphabet Inc.)
BRUSSELS (AP/KTVU) - European Union regulators have hit Google with a 1.49 billion euro ($1.68 billion) fine for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.
The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe of Google's AdSense advertising business case at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
It's the third time the commission has slapped Google with an antitrust penalty, following multibillion-dollar fines resulting from separate probes into two other parts of the Silicon Valley giant's business.
Last year, Vestager hit the company with a record 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) fine following an investigation into its Android operating system. In 2017, she slapped Google with a 2.42 billion euro fine in a case involving its online shopping search results.
In a statement sent to KTVU on Wednesday, Kent Walker, senior vice president of Global Affairs, said: "We’ve always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone’s interest. We've already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the commission's concerns. Over the next few months, we’ll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe.”