Google and the EU's European Commission are making all sorts of announcements lately. Fresh off the revelation that Google would implement a browser and search-engine picker in EU-sold Android devices, Google's advertising division is getting slapped with a fine next, to the tune of €1.5 billion ($1.69 billion). The European Commission's latest antitrust ruling says that Google's bundling of its advertising platform with its custom search engine program is anti-competitive toward other ad providers.

The particular wing of Google's advertising empire the Commission is concerned with here is "AdSense for Search." Adsense for Search does not refer to the famous ads above Google.com search results but, instead, are ads displayed in "Custom Search" results that can be embedded inside their websites. We have a version of this on Ars—just click the magnifying glass in the top navigation bar and search for something. You won't leave Ars Technica; instead you'll get a customized version of Google Search embedded in arstechnica.com, complete with Google Ads above the results. These are the "Adsense for Search" ads, and they are different from Google.com ads. The European Commission's ruling is all about these "ads for custom search engines."

The European Commission reviewed "hundreds" of Google advertising contracts and found a range of behavior from Google's Ad division that it deemed anti-competitive. First, from 2006 to 2009, Google ads had to exclusively be shown on pages with Google custom search engines. You weren't allowed to do something like use Google to crawl your site and then show Yahoo ads above the embedded results.

The Commission noted that Google loosened this requirement in 2009 and replaced it with another practice it found uncompetitive: "Premium Placement" clauses. These clauses said that, while you could show custom search advertisements from a competing ad provider, Google's ads had to go in the top slots, and there were a minimum number of Google ads you needed to serve on your custom search page. Changing the way rival advertisements were displayed also required written approval from Google.

Basically, Google was bundling its ad platform with its custom search engine for websites, and the European Commission ruled that arrangement was anti-competitive toward other ad providers. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager laid out the Commission's view of the situation, saying, "Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate - and consumers the benefits of competition."

Google has yet to issue a response to this latest fine.</s>Google has been hit with a new antitrust fine from the European Union totaling €1.5 billion.

In a press conference this morning, EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the tech giant had abused its dominant position by forcing customers of its AdSense business to sign contracts stating they would not accept advertising from rival search engines. Said Vestager: “The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate.”

Google has been fined $9.3 billion by the EU over the last three years

The fine is the third major penalty the EU has levied against the tech giant in as many years, and closes its last open probe of the firm. Google was fined a record €4.3 billion last year for abusing its market dominance in mobile, and €2.4 billion the year before that for manipulating shopping search results. Google is currently appealing both cases.

With the new penalty, Google’s total EU antitrust bill now stands at €8.2 billion ($9.3 billion). Today’s fine was lower than the previous two as Google actively worked with the European Commission to change its AdSense policies after the EU announced its case in 2016.

The policy under scrutiny dates back to 2006. Then, Google started selling customers its AdSense for Search product. This let companies like retailers and newspapers place a Google search box on their website. When visitors used the search box, Google showed them ads and split the commission with the website’s owners.

But, Google also made customers sign contracts forbidding them from including rival search engines on their sites alongside Google’s own. In 2009, Google allowed the inclusion of rival search engines as long as Google’s was more prominent. In 2016, around the time the EU announced its case, the company removed these terms altogether.

This climb-down reflects, in part, AdSense’s diminishing importance for Google. The business was a steady earner, but never a major component of the company’s revenue. According to Bloomberg, AdSense contributed less than 20 percent of the company’s income in 2015 and has declined ever since. “If you look at the annual reports, AdSense is less and less relevant,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Aitor Ortiz told the publication.

During the press conference this morning, commissioner Vestager also offered updates on Google’s responses to its other antitrust fines. For example, with regards to its manipulation of shopping search results, Vestager said that changes Google made after the EU’s case increased the visibility of rivals from 6 percent of search results to 40 percent.

Vestager also noted that in response to the antitrust case made against Android, Google has decided this week to give users a choice about the browser and search engine they use on their phones (rather than simply pre-installing Google’s own services).

The EU praised Google’s response to the Android antitrust case

“We’ve seen in the past that a choice screen can be an effective way to promote user choice,” said Vestager. “It is welcome that Google is stepping up its effort and we will watch closely to see how the choice-screen mechanism evolves.”

Although today’s fine brings an end to EU’s current trilogy of open probes, the organization is still looking at a number of other areas of Google’s business and could open new cases in future. Vestager mentioned the search market for jobs and local listings as areas of scrutiny.

“We keep getting complaints from people who are concerned about how these markets work, so we will keep doing our job,” said Vestager. “For me, the most important thing here is to enable user choice.”</s>European Union regulators have hit Google with a $1.68 billion (1.49 billion euro/£1.28billion) fine for or blocking rival online search advertisers.

It is the third multi-billion dollar EU antitrust penalty for Google's parenting company Alphabet in just two years.

The European Commission, which said the fine accounted for 1.29 percent of Google's turnover in 2018, said in a statement that the anti-competitive practices had lasted a decade.

The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

'Today's decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform,' Vestager said.

The commission found that Google and its parent company, Alphabet, breached EU antitrust rules by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with websites that used AdSense, preventing Google rivals from placing their ads on these sites.

WHAT IS ADSENSE AND HOW IS GOOGLE ALLEGED TO HAVE MISUSED IT? AdSense is a program that allows publishers to display advertisements on their own sites, targeted to their audience and content. The ads shown by the program, used by millions of websites, is effectively managed by Google. Today's EU case concerned AdSense for Search, used by websites, such as of newspaper or travel sites, with a search function that produces search results and search adverts. For example, if a user searched for 'shoes' on a newspaper website, they would be shown articles about shoes as well as adverts for shoes - and these adverts would be provided by Google AdSense for Search. The misconduct included stopping publishers from placing any search adverts from Google's competitors on their search results pages, forcing them to reserve the most profitable space on their search results pages for Google's adverts and a requirement to seek written approval from Google before making changes to the way in which any rival adverts were displayed.

Google 'prevented its rivals from having a chance to innovate and to compete in the market on their merits,' Vestager said.

'Advertisers and website owners, they had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.'

Last year Vestager hit the company with a record $5bn (£3.8bn / €4.3bn) fine following an investigation into its Android operating system.

In 2017, she slapped Google with a $2.84bn (£2.1bn / €2.42bn) fine in a case involving its online shopping search results.

Shortly after the fine was announced, Google said it has made and will continue to make a number of changes to address EU antitrust regulators' concerns.

'We've always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone's interest,' Kent Walker, senior vice-president of global affairs, said in a statement.

'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,' he continued.

He did not comment specifically on the European Commission's $1.7bn fine handed down today.

The European Commission opened the most recent case against Google in 2016, accusing the search engine of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors.

In response to the investigation, Google changed the conditions in its AdSense contracts with large third parties, giving them more leeway to display competing search ads.

The AdSense case may not be the end of Google's EU antitrust woes.

EU antitrust enforcers have asked Google's rivals if it unfairly demotes local search competitors, according to a questionnaire seen by Reuters, a move which could lead to a fourth case.

Online mapping services and others could also soon be in the spotlight.</s>European Union regulators hit Google with a $1.68-billion US fine on Wednesday for abusing its dominant role in online advertising.

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.

The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, announced the results of the long-running probe of Google's AdSense advertising business at a news conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

"Today's decision is about how Google abused its dominance to stop websites using brokers other than the AdSense platform," Vestager said.

The commission found Google and its parent company, Alphabet, breached EU antitrust rules by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with websites that used AdSense, preventing Google rivals from placing their ads on these sites.

Google "prevented its rivals from having a chance to innovate and to compete in the market on their merits," Vestager said. "Advertisers and website owners, they had less choice and likely faced higher prices that would be passed on to consumers."

AdSense is an older Google product that lets web publishers such as bloggers place text ads on their websites, with the content of the ads based on results from search functions on their sites.

Microsoft filed an EU antitrust complaint about the service in 2009 and the EU Commission formally launched its probe in 2016, although it said at the time that Google had already made some changes to allow affected customers more freedom to show competing ads.

Last year, Vestager hit the company with a record $5-illion fine following an investigation into its Android operating system. In 2017, she fined Google $2.75 billion in a case involving its online shopping search results.</s>The European Commission has hit Google with another large fine, this time €1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) for engaging in anti-competitive practices with its advertising tool AdSense.

Google was found guilty of breaking antitrust laws by blocking third party rivals from using AdSense to display advertisements. This is the third fine the Commission has levelled against Google in the last couple of years, but this most recent one is less than a third of the previous record fine for other antitrust violations.
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The fine is for Google's activities in relation to AdSense between 2006 and 2016. In response to Europe's investigation the company has already opened up AdSense to allows rivals to display ads. Google is said to have "cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites".

European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, shared news of the fine in a tweet.

Today the Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for illegal misuse of its dominant position in the market for the brokering of online search adverts. The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate -- and consumers the benefits of competition.

Google is expected to appeal against the fine.</s>BRUSSELS
• Alphabet's Google was fined a bigger-than-expected €1.49 billion (S$2.3 billion) by the European Union for thwarting advertising rivals in what is likely EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's third and final attack on the United States tech giant.

It brings the total that Google has been ordered to pay to €8.2 billion in EU antitrust probes.

Google is making efforts to avoid more fines linked to two older cases, and is trying to stop potential new investigations into local and job search services.

Yesterday's case focused on Google's role as an advertising broker for websites, targeting exclusivity agreements for online ads with its AdSense for Search product.

The service places text advertising on websites, including retailers, telecommunications operators and newspapers.

The problematic contracts were all dropped by 2016, when the EU escalated the investigation.

AdSense contributed less than 20 per cent of Google's total ad revenue in 2015, a percentage which has declined steadily since 2010.

"Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites," Ms Vestager said in an e-mail.

"This is illegal under EU antitrust rules."

Google has made and will make a number of changes to address EU antitrust regulators' concerns that it has unfairly promoted its shopping service and hindered rivals of its Android smartphone operating system, a senior executive said yesterday.

"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," said Mr Kent Walker, Google's senior vice-president of global affairs.

"Over the next few months, we'll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe."

He did not comment specifically on the EU fine that had been handed down.

The advertising revenues that fuel profits for Google and Facebook are increasingly coming under antitrust scrutiny, often prompted by complaints from media companies as ad spending shifts to the web.

France's competition authority has flagged the scale of Google's ad business as a potential concern.

Germany started an inquiry last month and Dutch regulators have been looking at how media companies generate ad revenue.

The UK recently signalled plans to start its own inquiry.

In July last year, the commission fined Google €4.3 billion and demanded that it change the way it puts search and web browser apps onto Android mobile devices.

In 2017, Google received a then-record €2.4 billion penalty after regulators accused it of skewing results to thwart smaller shopping search services.

Google has been scathing about the EU probes, claiming that they lack evidence.

The AdSense case cites "just a few complaints to justify broad legal claims," one of the company's top lawyers said in a 2016 blog post.

Regulators said in 2016 that the ad deals "artificially reduced the opportunities for Google's competitors on this commercially important market."

The EU commissioner has rejected claims that she is singling out US tech giants for special treatment, despite a series of high-profile decisions targeting American companies, including Apple and Amazon.com.</s>The European Union on Wednesday slapped Google with a $1.7 billion fine for the company’s efforts to block its competitors in the online advertising market.

The decision covers a decade-long period from 2006 to 2016 in which the EU said Google used its market position to clamp down on the ability of third-party rivals to display search ads. Among the methods the EU said Google used included exclusivity contracts that prevented website owners from including search results from rivals of Google.

The EU also said that beginning in 2009, Google began implementing “premium placement” clauses, which required publishers to request a minimum number of Google ads and also leave the most-profitable spaces on their search result pages for Google ads.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s commissioner in charge of competition policy, said in a statement that Google’s restrictions were “illegal under EU antitrust rules,” and “denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate – and consumers the benefits of competition.”

Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global policy, said in a statement that company was working to ensure its products meet all the EU’s business standards.
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• Stanford unveils new AI institute, built to create ‘a better future for all humanity’ “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,” Walker said. “Over the next few months, we’ll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe.”

It was the third fine the EU has levied against Google in the past two years. In 2017, the EU handed down a $2.7 billion penalty on Google for using preferential methods to promote its own shopping service over rival options, and in July of last year, European regulators slapped Google with a $5 billion fine for the abusing its market position to give preference to its Android operating system.</s>Google has been hit with a third antitrust fine in the European Union, this time for €1.5 bn, for illegal practices in search advertising. It was found that Google had restrictive contracts which were forced on customers through the AdSense business. Before this, Google has had to pay a fine of €4.3 bn last year and €2.4 bn in 2017.

European Union's competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google had misused its market-dominant position, yet again. According to Vestager, Google's practices denied other companies the ability to compete on merit.

"Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites . . . The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate — and consumers the benefits of competition," said Vestager.

With this third fine, the sum total of fines Google has paid in the EU stands at €8.2 bn.

Last year, it had to pay a fine of €4.3 bn for abusing its market dominance in mobile space and in 2017, Google had to pay a fine of €2.4 bn for manipulating shopping search results.

According to the EU officials, since 2006, Google had prevented its AdSense customers from allowing any rival search engines on their sites. While originally, AdSense did not allow placement of rival search engines, in 2009 Google allowed that as long as Google search box was visible as well. In 2016, these terms were removed.

AdSense has been losing importance over the years and accounts for less than 20 per cent of Google's total ad revenue according to Bloomberg.

Tech2 is now on WhatsApp. For all the buzz on the latest tech and science, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Tech2.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.</s>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Google was hit with a 1.49-billion-euro ($1.7 billion) fine on Wednesday, the third antitrust sanction from the European Union in two years after a record-breaking 4.34 billion euro penalty last year and a 2.4-billion-euro sanction in 2017 over its anti-competitive practices.

The European Commission said Google, a division of Alphabet, had prevented third parties using its AdSense advertising service from displaying search advertisements from Google’s competitors.

** Below is a timeline of Google’s antitrust cases in Europe:

** March 20 2019 - EU antitrust enforcers slap a 1.49 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) fine on Google because it hindered rivals in online search advertising for a decade.

** July 18 2018 - EU antitrust regulators hand down a record 4.34 billion euro fine to Google over its Android mobile operating system after a three-year long investigation.

** July 14 2016 - EU sets out another charge against Google’s shopping service. It also accuses the company of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from displaying search advertisements from Google’s competitors - a third case against the company.

** April 20 April 2016 - EU sends a charge sheet to Google outlining the company’s anti-competitive practices with regard to Android smartphone makers and apps makers.

** April 15 2015 - EU charges Google with blocking competitors of its price comparison shopping service.

** Sept 2014 - Joaquin Almunia, European Competition Commissioner at that time, says he will not be able to wrap up the Google case before his mandate ends in October.

** May 2014 - Almunia says feedback from complainants will be crucial to determining whether he accepts Google’s concessions.

** 2013 - Lobbying group FairSearch files a complaint about Google’s Android business practices to the European Commission.

** April 25 2013 - EU seeks feedback from rivals and users to Google’s concessions.

** April 3 2013 - Google offers concessions related to online search and its AdSense advertising network to address EU competition concerns, without admitting wrongdoing.

** Nov 30 2010 - European Commission opens investigation into allegations that Google has abused its dominant position in online searches following 18 complaints.

** 2010 - Microsoft complains about Google’s practices related to its AdSense advertising service.

** Nov 3 2009 - British price comparison site Foundem complains about Google’s online search to the European Commission.</s>The European Union on Wednesday ordered Google to pay 1.49 billion euros ($1.69 billion) for stifling competition in the online advertisement sector.The European Commission said Google had placed exclusivity contracts on website owners, stopping them from including search results from Google's rivals. It said these clauses were replaced in 2009 by premium payments and in the same year, Google had asked publishers to seek permission on how rival ads were displayed.The EU's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said"Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules," Vestager said in Brussels.In response, Google's senior vice president of global affairs, Kent Walker 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."The Alphabet company has previously defended the use of its ad technology, claiming it had been in place since 2006, is now superseded, and is a minor product.In the fourth quarter of 2018, Google's core advertising business saw revenue increase 20 percent from the previous quarter to $32.6 billion - the same rate of growth as the last quarter.The European Commission said between 2006 to 2016, Google was by far the strongest player in online search advertising in the European Economic Area, with a market share above 70 percent.Last July, regulators in Brussels hit the Alphabet unit with a $5 billion fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system.Google lets phone makers use the open-source Android software for free, but the EU accused it of benefiting its own services, including forcing phone makers to bundle Google products like Search, Maps and Chrome with its app store, Play.In a blog post Tuesday, Walker said European Android customers will now be asked which apps they would like to use instead.Vestager said Wednesday it was welcome news that Google was "stepping up its effort with the Android system" and the the European Commission would watch to see how the improved choice unfolded.In 2017, the EU fined Google $2.7 billion for favoring its shopping service over competitors.In an interview with CNBC following the announcement, Vestager rejected any suggestion that the fines against Google would disrupt the relationship between Europe and the United States.The competition supremo added that the commission had also imposed a number of fines on European companies."One should understand that you are more than welcome to do business in Europe but with our rule book and with no illegal behavior," she said.Vestager has just 6 months left in her role but said her successor would enjoy the same strong mandate.
European Union regulators fine Google €1.49 billion for bundling Google Custom Search with its AdSense program which the regulators find as illegal under EU antitrust rules.