Google Appeals £2.2bn EU Antitrust Fine For Search Abuse

Google has appealed the multi-billion pound fine issued by the EU for the alleged abuse of its dominant position in the search engine market.

Parent company Alphabet was slapped with a record €2.4 billion (£2.18bn) fine in June the culmination of a seven year investigation by the European Commission (EC) following complaints from rivals such as Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Nokia and Expedia.

Google antitrust fine appeal

The appeal has been filed with the General Court of the European Union, but there are no further details at this time.

The EC has ordered Google to stop its anti-competitive behaviour by 28 September, or risk penalty payments of as much as 5 percent of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover.

The company has submitted plans on how it plans to stop favouring its shopping service and these are currently being reviewed by Brussels.

It has been suggested that Google is buoyed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ)’s decision last week to revisit a €1.06 billion (£972m) antitrust fine handed to Intel in 2009 for the alleged abuse of the chip giant’s own dominant position.

Google has fought or is facing several antitrust and privacy investigations around the world, including another relating to the Android mobile operating system.

Specifically, the European Commission has been unhappy that Google has been providing payments and discounts to manufacturers in exchange for pre-installing Google Play Store along with Google Search.

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