The European Commission is preparing to unveil a series of rulings against Google this week, totalling hundreds of millions of euros according to reporting by the Financial Times.
The fines relate to two ongoing investigations. In the first, the Commission is expected to find that Google has privileged its own shopping, travel and other specialised services over rivals in search results. Earlier in the month, Google was ordered to pay almost $2 billion by a Swedish court for a similar breach involving price comparison websites.
The second case, the FT reported, is expected to require Google to give app developers in its Play Store greater freedom to direct users to other mobile app systems.
The two fines will be prosecuted under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which allows the EU to fine companies up to 10 per cent of their global turnover. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported revenues of over $400 billion last year.
The paper added that Google will also face periodic penalty payments if it fails to comply with these aspects of the DMA within 60 days, despite months of negotiations between the company and the Commission intended to limit the fines to past conduct alone.
The documents seen by the FT do not specify how much the company will be fined, but do say that its non-compliance “should be considered as serious”.
These investigations are part of a series of major antitrust cases the company faces. On 2 July, the European Court of Justice upheld a €4.1 billion fine for anticompetitive practices, which was first levied against the company in 2018, and it is currently appealing a €1.49 billion antitrust fine issued in 2019.
