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Google Fined $2.7 Billion in EU Antitrust Ruling

For systematically favoring its own search services over those of rivals.

The European Commission slapped Google with a record $2.7 billion fine—2.4 billion euros—on Tuesday for favoring some of its own search results above those of its rivals. “What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” Margrethe Vestager, the commission’s top antitrust official, said in a statement. “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 must change the results within 90 days or face more penalties, regulators said. Google has consistently denied breaching Europe’s competition rules.