Image copyright Google Image caption Google Shopping ads appear at the top of many search result pages

Google has been fined 2.42bn euros ($2.7bn; £2.1bn) by the European Commission after it ruled the company had abused its power by promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results.

The amount is the regulator's largest penalty to date against a company accused of distorting the market.

The ruling also orders Google to end its anti-competitive practices within 90 days or face a further penalty.

The US firm said it may appeal.

However, if it fails to change the way it operates the Shopping service within the three-month deadline, it could be forced to make payments of 5% of its parent company Alphabet's average daily worldwide earnings.

Based on the company's most recent financial report, that amounts to about $14m a day.

The commission said it was leaving it to Google to determine what alterations should be made to its Shopping service rather than specifying a remedy.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," declared Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's Competition Commissioner.

"It has denied other companies the chance to compete on their merits and to innovate, and most importantly it has denied European consumers the benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption WATCH: Margrethe Vestager explains how consumers have been harmed by Google's Shopping service

Ms Vestager added that the decision could now set a precedent that determines how she handles related complaints about the prominence Google gives to its own maps, flight price results and local business listings within its search tools.

Google had previously suggested that Amazon and eBay have more influence over the public's spending habits and has again said it does not accept the claims made against it.

"When you shop online, you want to find the products you're looking for quickly and easily," a spokesman said in response to the ruling.

"And advertisers want to promote those same products. That's why Google shows shopping ads, connecting our users with thousands of advertisers, large and small, in ways that are useful for both.

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case."

Fast growth

Google Shopping displays relevant products' images and prices alongside the names of shops they are available from and review scores, if available.

Image copyright Google Image caption Shopping results often push traditional links off screen when viewed on smartphones

The details are labelled as being "sponsored", reflecting the fact that, unlike normal search results, they only include items that sellers have paid to appear.

On smartphones, the facility typically dominates "above-the-fold" content, meaning users might not see any traditional links unless they scroll down.

Google also benefits from the fact the Shopping service adverts are more visual than its text-based ads.

One recent study suggested Shopping accounts for 74% of all retail-related ads clicked on within Google Search results. However, the BBC understands Google's own data indicates the true figure is smaller.

Seven-year probe

The European Commission has been investigating Google Shopping since late 2010.

The probe was spurred on by complaints from Microsoft, among others.

The rival tech giant has opted not to comment on the ruling, after the two struck a deal last year to try to avoid such legal battles in the future.

However, one of the other original complainants - the British price comparison service Foundem - welcomed the announcement.

"Although the record-breaking 2.42bn euro fine is likely to dominate the headlines, the prohibition of Google's immensely harmful search manipulation practices is far more important," said its chief executive Shivaun Raff.

"For well over a decade, Google's search engine has played a decisive role in determining what most of us read, use and purchase online. Left unchecked, there are few limits to this gatekeeper power."

Analysis: Rory Cellan-Jones, Technology correspondent

Image copyright EPA

This is a big moment in a clash between the EU and the US's tech giants, which has been going on for more than a decade.

The commission believes it has struck a blow for consumers and for little firms at a time when online advertising - particularly on mobile phones - is dominated by Google and Facebook.

Google believes the regulator has a weak case and has failed to provide evidence that either consumers or rivals have been harmed.

In essence, it sees this as a political move rather than one based on competition law. You can be pretty confident that the Trump administration will share that view.

There's mounting anxiety in European capitals about something called Gafa - Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon - the four American giants that play such a huge role in all of our lives.

That means we can expect further action to try to limit their powers, with the potential for growing political tension between Brussels and Washington.

Although the penalty is record-sized, it could have been bigger.

The commission has the power to fine Alphabet up to 10% of its annual revenue, which was more than $90bn (£70.8bn) in its last financial year.

Alphabet can afford the fine - it currently has more than $172bn of assets.

Image copyright Google Image caption The Shopping service has helped Google make ads appear more attractive

But one expert said the company would be more concerned about the impact on its future operations.

"If it has to change the appearance of it results and rankings, that's going to have an impact on how it can monetise search," said Chris Green, from the tech consultancy Lewis.

"Right now, the way that Google prioritises some of its retail and commercial services generates quite a lot of ad income.

"When you consider the sheer number of search queries that Google handles on a daily basis, that's a lot of ad inventory going in front of a lot of eyeballs.

"Dent that by even a few percentage points, and there's quite a big financial drop."

Europe v US tech:

Image copyright Getty Images

At her press conference, Margrethe Vestager insisted her action was "based on facts" rather than any prejudice the European Commission might have against US tech companies.

"We have heard allegations of being biased against US companies," she said.

"I have been going through the statistics... I can find no facts to support any kind of bias."

But this is far from the first time the European Commission has penalised US tech giants for what it views to be bad behaviour.

Others to have been targeted include:

Microsoft (2008) - the Windows-developer was fined €899m for failing to comply with earlier punishments, imposed over its refusal to share key code with its rivals and the bundling of its Explorer browser with its operating system. Five years later, it was told to pay a further €561m for failing to comply with a pledge to provide users a choice screen of browsers

Intel (2009) - the chip-maker was ordered to pay €1.06bn for skewing the market by offering discounts conditional on computer-makers avoiding products from its rivals. Intel challenged the fine, and a final court ruling in the matter is expected in 2018

Qualcomm (2015) - the chip-maker was accused of illegally paying a customer to use its technology and selling its chipsets below cost to push a rival out of the market. If confirmed, it faces a fine that could top €2bn, but the case has yet to be resolved

Apple (2016) - Ireland was ruled to have given up to €13bn of illegal tax benefits to the iPhone-maker since 1991, and was ordered to recover the funds plus interest from the company. However, Dublin missed the deadline it was given to do so and has said it will appeal

Facebook (2017) - the social network agreed to pay a €110m fine for saying it could not match user accounts on its main service to those of WhatsApp when it took over the instant messaging platform, and then doing just that two years later

The commission is also investigating Amazon over concerns that a tax deal struck with Luxembourg gave it an unfair advantage.

The European Commission continues to pursue two separate cases against Google.

The first involves allegations that the technology company has made it difficult for others to have their apps and search engines preinstalled on Android devices.

The second covers claims Google took steps to restrict rivals' ads from appearing on third-party websites that had installed a Google-powered search box.</s>European Union regulators slapped Google with a record €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) antitrust fine on Tuesday, the latest broadside fired at big American tech companies doing business in the region.

The European Commission found that the U.S. tech giant denied "consumers a genuine choice" by using its search engine to unfairly steer them to its own shopping platform.

Regulators said that Google must change its behavior within 90 days or face additional penalties.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said Margrethe Vestager, the bloc's top antitrust official. "It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

Google (GOOGL) said in a statement that it tries to show ads in ways that are helpful for buyers and sellers.

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today," a Google spokesperson said. "We will review the Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case."

The Commission said that Google acted illegally by giving priority placement in search results to its own shopping service, while relegating results from rivals to areas where potential buyers were much less likely to click.

It could have fined Google as much as 10% of its annual sales, or roughly $9 billion.

The $2.7 billion fine represents just over 2.5% of Google's revenue last year and Alphabet, Google's owner, had $92.4 billion in cash as of end of March.

Vestager said Google's competitors could claim compensation in national courts within the EU. She said hundreds of companies, including some based in the U.S., complained about the way Google displayed its shopping service.

Shares in Alphabet dropped by 1.2% in premarket trading.

Tuesday's fine dwarfs the previous EU record antitrust penalty of €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) imposed on Intel (INTC) in 2009. Intel has been fighting to overturn that decision ever since.

Google's regulatory headache in Europe doesn't end with the online shopping case, which dates back to 2010.

The EU has also accused the Silicon Valley titan of abusing its market position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators.

It is also investigating the company's ad placing service, AdSense.

Related: Nike is the next U.S. company in Europe's crosshairs

American firms have come under increased scrutiny in Europe on issues related to tax and competition.

Apple (AAPL) is fighting a European demand that it repay €13 billion ($14.7 billion) in back taxes to the Irish government.

Facebook (FB) was fined by antitrust regulators in May for misleading officials over its takeover of messaging service WhatsApp. The same month, Amazon (AMZN) agreed to change its distribution agreements with e-book publishers to address antitrust concerns raised by the Commission.

And in early June, antitrust officials launched investigations into claims that Nike (NKE) may have broken EU laws by restricting how traders can sell licensed merchandise. Comcast's (CCV) Universal Studios is being investigated on the same grounds.

Vestager rejected any suggestion of anti-American bias, telling reporters on Tuesday that an analysis of investigations her department has launched found that U.S. companies were not being disproportionately targeted.

-- Paul R. La Monica contributed reporting.</s>The EU antitrust regulators are expected to impose a record fine on Google for search engine manipulation to favour its own services, Reuters reports.

An unprecedented fine is expected to be announced on Tuesday.

Following a two years investigation, the EU’s anti-trust authority has concluded that Google manipulated search engine results to favour AlphabetAlphabet, Google, its own shopping service unit. The search engine manipulation is said to have hurt both rivals and consumers.

Companies guilty of violating EU antitrust law can be fined up to 10% of their global turnover, which corresponds to little over €8bn for Google. The company must also ensure equal treatment in internet shopping results.</s>Google likely to face record antitrust fine as soon as Tuesday: Report

EU antitrust regulators are likely to impose a record fine on Alphabet unit Google over its shopping service as soon as Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, concluding one of three cases against the company.

The European Commission's case was triggered by scores of complaints from both U.S. and European rivals, leading to a seven-year-long investigation into the world's most popular internet search engine.

The EU competition authority charged Google in April 2015 with distorting internet search results to favor its shopping service, harming both rivals and consumers.

Google said: "We continue to engage constructively with the European Commission and we believe strongly that our innovations in online shopping have been good for shoppers, retailers and competition."

The company has said regulators ignored competition from online retailers Amazon and eBay Inc.

Reuters exclusively reported on June 1 that the EU competition enforcer aimed to sanction the company before the summer break in August.

Companies found guilty of infringing EU antitrust rules can be fined as much as 10 percent of their global turnover, which in Google's case could be about $9 billion of its 2016 turnover but it is not expected to reach this level.

A 1.06 billion euro fine handed down to U.S. chipmaker Intel in 2009 is the highest to date.

Apart from the fine, the Commission will tell Google to stop its alleged anti-competitive practices but it is not clear what measures it will order the company to adopt to ensure that rivals get equal treatment in internet shopping results.

The Commission's tough line is in sharp contrast with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission which settled its own web search case with the company in 2013 by requiring Google to stop "scraping" reviews and other data from rival websites for its own products.</s>The European Commission just slapped Mountain View Calif.-based Google with a $2.7 billion fine for favoring its own shopping services in its search results.

The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union.

For a company that made $90.3 billion in revenues in 2016, the fine may be stiff, but bearable.

What will likely hit Google in the pocket much harder over the coming years is the part of the ruling that orders Google to change the practice within 90 days.

'What Google Has Done Is Illegal'

The European Commission accused Google of giving its own online service, Google Shopping, higher priority in search results to the detriment of other price comparison services, such as TripAdvisor and Expedia.

In a statement that was surprisingly direct, even for the straight-talking European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager, she described the search giant's practice as illegal:

“Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing. But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors. “What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

The fine broke the previous EU record for a monopoly case, a $1.12 billion fine levied against US chipmaker Intel in 2009.

Currently, the Google search engine provides search results to consumers, who pay for the service with their data. According to the EU, 90 percent of its revenues in the European region stem from the advertisements that surface when a user makes a query.

In 2004 Google entered the separate market of comparison shopping in Europe, with a product that was initially called Froogle, renamed Google Product Search in 2008 and called Google Shopping since 2013.

To give the service an edge, Google changed its strategy in Europe in 2008 to:
• Give prominence to its own shopping service and

By doing so, Google massively increased traffic to its comparison shopping service. In fact, the EC estimates the traffic increased by:

The $2.7 billion fine is only the start though. Google is also obliged to stop the practice and to apply the same processes and methods to position and display rival comparison shopping services.

It will also have to show the Commission how it intends to remedy the situation. If it fails to do so, it will be liable to a further fine of five percent of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

More to the point, with this ruling, the EC has opened up a path for companies in Europe who believe their business has suffered as a result of this practice to take civil action against Google in court.

Google issued a statement in response to the ruling almost as soon as the EU statement was released. In it, it argued that it uses the practice to compete with the likes of Amazon and eBay in fair competition. The statement reads:

As a result, the statement continued, the company disagrees with the decision and will reexamine it closely:

“Given the evidence, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” it concluded.

However, it is the dominance of Google and other internet shopping giants that lies at the core of the issue.

FairSearch.org is a lobby group of businesses and organizations that seeks to ensure choice across the internet ecosystem by defending competition in online and mobile search. It welcomed the EC decision.

Thomas Vinje, spokesman and legal counsel to FairSearch said in a statement following the ruling that it shows the EC is serious about these issues despite, “nearly seven years of foot-dragging by Google.”

“Google search results are not designed to deliver the most relevant results (and best prices) to consumers, but rather to make the most money for Google. Consumers have therefore faced reduced choice of goods and services and ultimately paid higher prices than they would have done had Google provided objective results,” Vinje said.

In response to accusations that the EC is anti-American Vinje added:

“The European Commission pursues US tech companies because they are the ones who dominate their industry. In industries where European companies dominate — for example energy, transportation and often financial services — the Commission pursues them, not American companies.”

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has also welcomed the decision. Director General of BEUC Monique Goyens said:

"This decision is a game-changer. The Commission confirmed that consumers do not see what is most relevant for them on the world’s most used search engine but rather what is best for Google. Now we need to see real changes to the company’s business practices so that consumer choice prevails when shoppers search Google for the product they want."

“Google’s illegal conduct in shopping services is just the tip of the iceberg. The Commission should now conclude its other investigations against Google ...."

Still More Trouble Ahead for Google

This is not the end of Google’s problems in Europe. The Commission has already come to the preliminary conclusion that Google has abused a dominant position in two other cases.

Those cases include monopoly allegations against Google over its Android operating system and mobile apps and claims that its AdSense advertising placement service prevents third-party websites from sourcing search ads from Google's competitors.</s>Google has been hit with a record-breaking fine of 2.4 billion euros (£2.1bn) by the European Commission for abusing its monopoly on Internet searches within the European Union.

The massive fine comes at the culmination of seven years of investigation and probing by the EC which ruled that Google had broken EU law on competition by exploiting its search engine results to promote its own shopping service in a a fashion that was to the detriment of other price comparison sites.

Alongside the fine Google has also been ordered by the EC to end its anit-competative practices within 90 days of face a further fine. The current fine, which Google may appeal, is the largest it has ever faced and the largest ever handed out by the EU.

“Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s Competition Commissioner.

“What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” she added. “It has denied other companies the chance to compete on their merits and to innovate, and most importantly it has denied European consumers the benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation.”

The result of Google’s search practices, according to the EC’s investigation, led Google’s comparison shopping service receiving significant hikes in traffic i the UK, Germany, France and Spain and other major EU nations, while traffic to rival services dropped significantly, essentially allowing Google to create a from of monopoly for itself.

Naturally, Google does not believe the EC’s investigation results and the fine it has been saddled with are fair.

“We believe the European Commission’s online shopping decision underestimates the value of those kinds of fast and easy connections,” said Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel.

“While some comparison shopping sites naturally want Google to show them more prominently, our data show that people usually prefer links that take them directly to the products they want, not to websites where they have to repeat their searches.

“We think our current shopping results are useful and are a much-improved version of the text-only ads we showed a decade ago. Showing ads that include pictures, ratings, and prices benefits us, our advertisers, and most of all, our users. And we show them only when your feedback tells us they are relevant. Thousands of European merchants use these ads to compete with larger companies like Amazon and eBay.”

As such, an appeal could very much be on Google’s agenda.

“Given the evidence, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” noted Walker.

Google is no stranger to tackling antitrust woes, as it recently came to a settlement with Russia over the use of default search engines in Android devices.

Why not test your knowledge of European tech pioneers and the EU’s contribution to the industry?Try our quiz!</s>BRUSSELS—The European Union’s antitrust watchdog will as soon as Tuesday hit Alphabet Inc.’s Google with a fine of more than €1 billion ($1.12 billion) and demand changes to the company’s business practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

The European Commission, which has for roughly seven years been investigating Google GOOGL, +0.97% GOOG, +0.89% for breaching the bloc’s antitrust rules in various areas, is poised to announce as soon as Tuesday that Google has manipulated search results to favor its own comparison-shopping service. Other formal EU probes into Google’s behaviors with its Android mobile-operating service and AdSense advertising service are continuing.

The antitrust penalty against Google is expected to surpass the EU’s previous record fine imposed on a company for allegedly abusing its market position: €1.06 billion against Intel Corp. INTC, -0.49% in 2009.

“We continue to engage constructively with the European Commission and we believe strongly that our innovations in online shopping have been good for shoppers, retailers and competition,” said Google spokesman Al Verney.

The EU will also likely demand Google give rival comparison shopping services such as Foundem.co.uk and Kelkoo.com Ltd. equal treatment in its search results. Complainants in the case allege that Google both demotes competitors’ offerings in search rankings and artificially inserts its own service in a box above all other search results, regardless of their relevance.

An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com.

In 10 Years, your iPhone won’t be a phone anymore</s>The European Commission has fined Google 2.42 billion euros ($2.72 billion) after finding that the company used its dominant search engine to drive people toward another Google product, its shopping service.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. "It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

The fine's amount, the European Commission says, is due to "the duration and gravity" of Google's actions. It gave the company 90 days to change its practices and display rivals' services in the same way it displays its own.

Google says it will review the fine and is considering an appeal; the company also defended the way it handles online shopping, saying that it connects users with advertisers "in ways that are useful for both."

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today," said Google General Counsel Kent Walker.

The fine centers around Google's comparison shopping service — which has been known by names from Froogle and Google Product Search to Google Shopping — and its prominent display in related search results.

Vestager says Google "abused its market dominance ... by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors."

That behavior, Vestager said, went too far. While acknowledging that Google's strategy included a plan to make its shopping product better than anyone else's, she said that the way the company treated its rivals and "systematically" ranked its own service at or near the top of the rankings went beyond the normal scope of competition.

Google adopted the same practice in all 13 EU countries where it unveiled its shopping service, the European Commission says, from Germany and the United Kingdom in 2008 to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Sweden in late 2013.

As for the effects of Google's strategy, the Commission says that traffic to Google's comparison shopping service rose "45-fold in the United Kingdom, 35-fold in Germany, 19-fold in France, 29-fold in the Netherlands, 17-fold in Spain and 14-fold in Italy."

The Commission says that Google's rivals saw their traffic plummet — by 85 percent in the United Kingdom, 92 percent in Germany and 80 percent in France.

"These sudden drops could also not be explained by other factors," the European body adds.</s>The European Union's antitrust watchdog will as soon as this week hit Alphabet Inc.'s Google with a fine of more than EUR1 billion ($1.12 billion) and demand changes to the company's business practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

The European Commission, which has for roughly seven years been investigating Google for breaching the bloc's antitrust rules in various areas, is poised to announce this week that Google has manipulated search results to favor its own comparison-shopping service. Other formal EU probes into Google's behaviors with its Android mobile-operating service and AdSense advertising service are continuing.

The antitrust penalty against Google is expected to surpass the EU's previous record fine imposed on a company for allegedly abusing its market position: EUR1.06 billion against Intel Corp. in 2009.

"We continue to engage constructively with the European Commission and we believe strongly that our innovations in online shopping have been good for shoppers, retailers and competition," said Google spokesman Al Verney.

The EU will also likely demand Google give rival comparison shopping services such as Foundem.co.uk and Kelkoo.com Ltd. equal treatment in its search results. Complainants in the case allege that Google both demotes competitors' offerings in search rankings and artificially inserts its own service in a box above all other search results, regardless of their relevance.

A decision in the comparison-shopping case could create precedents for Google's behavior with its other search services, such as travel and maps, which the EU is also scrutinizing.

The move against another powerful American company is likely to stoke accusations across the Atlantic that the EU disproportionately targets American companies, especially tech firms, to protect its own European-grown industries.

The European Commission has already hit Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Starbucks Corp. with various decisions for breaching the bloc's competition rules, hitting their financial accounts. The regulator also continues to probe McDonald's Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. for allegedly not paying enough taxes in Europe.

In the Google case, some large U.S. companies, including Yelp Inc., complained alongside European firms to the EU about the company's behavior in the hopes that Brussels would take action.

Microsoft Corp. initially also took part but hasn't been lobbying against Google in Brussels after the two companies ended a long-running feud last year.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has also formally complained to the EU about Google but over the company's handling of news articles on its search service.

U.S. antitrust authorities in early 2013 decided to end their own investigation into the company after Google agreed to some voluntary changes to its practices.</s>Google was hit by a record-breaking fine for antitrust violations in Europe today. The European Commission will levy a €2.42 billion ($2.7 billion) penalty on the tech giant, far surpassing the €1.06 billion fine slapped on Intel in 2009, the previous record. Under EU law, a maximum fine of 10% of annual revenues can be levied for antitrust misdeeds; that would have translated to $9 billion, based on Google parent company Alphabet’s 2016 revenues, so it could have been even worse.

Even before the massive fine was announced, the jockeying over how to frame the punishment was underway. A draft letter is being circulated in Washington, DC, that claims the EU is “unfairly targeting” American companies, according to the Financial Times (paywall). Although the letter is in the Consumer Technology Association’s name, a senior Google lobbyist had been reportedly promoting it to lawmakers. The tech firm later distanced itself from the letter, the FT reported. Quartz has contacted Google for comment. No other companies have signed the letter yet, the FT says.

Opposing Google’s effort is a group of American companies, including tech heavyweight Oracle, who have published their own letter, welcoming the commission’s action and dispelling the anti-American argument, Recode reported. The fine is “necessary and appropriate, not provincial,” the letter reads. “We have watched Google undermine competition in the United States and abroad,” it continues. The signatories include News Corp. and Yelp, in addition to Oracle, all of whom have lodged complaints against Google with the commission in the past.

The long-running Google case, which began in 2010, centers on allegedly anti-competitive practices by the search giant around its shopping service. The commission says Google unfairly favors its own shopping search results; Google denies any wrongdoing. According to Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition:

The shopping case is just one of three outstanding antitrust investigations against Google in Europe. The other two focus on how Google distributes its Android mobile operating system and the terms it offers to websites displaying its ads. Those cases could also have blockbuster fines attached to them when they finally conclude.

Read this next: These are the EU’s reported plans to break up Google’s monopoly powers
The European Commission imposes a record €2.42bn antitrust fine on internet giant Google for allegedly manipulating its search engine results.