Google condemns the third time next week antitrust laws in the EU – source

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The Google Group should be fined this week for a third European antitrust fine, linked to its AdSense advertising service, a person close to the case said Friday, with a much less severe penalty than the previous ones.

In 2016, the European Commission opened a third appeal against the world's most popular Internet search engine by accusing Google of preventing third parties using its AdSense product from posting search ads from its competitors.

Google, which at that time held 80% of the European market for search engine intermediation over the past decade, has maintained its anti-competitive practices for a decade.

In response, Google has changed the terms of its AdSense contracts with significant third parties, giving them more leeway to post competing search ads.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters that she was finalizing the dossier.

On Friday, the Council declined to comment on the timing of the AdSense decision. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Financial Times had already published an article on the EU antitrust fine imposed next week.

Last year, Vestager inflicted a record fine of 4.34 billion euros on Google for using its popular Android mobile operating system in order to block its rivals.

The one that follows a fine of 2.4 billion euros inflicted on the company in 2017 for blocking rivals of sites selling sites comparison.

AdSense may not be the end of Google's antitrust issues.

According to a questionnaire consulted by Reuters, the EU's competition forces have asked Google's competitors if they unfairly demote competitors in the research sector at the local level, which could give rise to a fourth case.

Online mapping services and others may also soon be in the spotlight.