EU hits Google with $2.6 billion fine in antitrust case

As the second day of the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google got underway, the EU upheld a $2.6 billion antitrust fine against the company.

The fine comes from a 2017 case in which regulators said Google abused its dominant market position in favoring its own shopping comparison service.

“We are disappointed with the decision of the Court,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday. “This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts. We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision. Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”

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In 2017, Google made changes that put it on equal footing with competitors when bidding for advertising slots within shopping search results. 

The EU ruling comes just four days after the UK ruled “that Google is using anti-competitive practices in open-display ad tech.”

2nd day of US antitrust case

The ruling came on the second day of the trial over charges the tech giant used its adtech and market share to exert monopolistic control of digital ad sales. Google has denied the claims, saying it is not required to share technological advantages with rivals and that its products are interoperable with competitors.

On Monday, Justice Department attorney Julia Tarver Wood said in her opening statement that Google dominated the sector through acquisitions and was able to manipulate the rules of ad auctions to its benefit. “Google is not here because they are big, they are here because they used that size to crush competition,” she said.

Google’s lead attorney, Karen Dunn, said the company has improved the sector with its investments in research and development, pointing out that the market for online ad sales has increased from $8 billion in 2008 to $140 billion in 2022. She also said there are a huge number of competitors in the field, ranging from Microsoft and Disney to Criteo and the Trade Desk.

“We are a big company among many others, intensely competing,” said Dunn. 

The trial is expected to last for several weeks.

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