The European Union has fined US tech giant Google €890 million ($1.015 billion) for violating EU digital rules.
The European Commission said it found Google had prioritized its ubiquitous search engine and its Play app store in a way that unfairly harmed competition.
“We found that Google disadvantages businesses that provide similar services, such as shopping or sports, by not giving them the same level of prominence on Google Search,” said European Commission Vice President Hanna Virkkunen.
“We also found that Google has banned app developers from offering giveaways to customers in the Google Play app store,” Virkkunen said.
The European Commission had already fined Google €4.3 billion in 2018, accusing the company of abusing the market dominance of the Android system by requiring phone makers to pre-install Google Search and the Google Chrome web browser. The company lost its appeal against the fine in February.
more to come…