Hyderabad: Alphabet’s Google is likely to face the wrath of EU antitrust regulator for favouring its shopping service before August, two people familiar with the matter told The Independent
The case, which has been under investigation for seven years, would also lay the groundwork for two other cases involving US firms.
Triggered by scores of complaints from both US and European rivals, the European Commission ordered the investigation.
In April 2015, the EU competition authority acussed Google of distorting internet search results to favour its own shopping service.
While neither party commented on the issue, Google has in the past rejected the charges, saying that regulators ignored competition from Amazon and eBay.
Companies found guilty of breaching the EU antitrust rules can be fined upto 10 per cent of their global turnover, which in Google’s case could be about $9 billion of its 2016 turnover.
Apart from the fine, the European 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.
