Google faces a fine of about 1.5 billion euros from the EU due to monopolistic practices

The European Union has imposed on Google a fine of 1.49 billion euros for blocking the company's ads in Internet search ads.

This is the third time that the European Union has fined the search engine giant and Google in two years.

Google faces charges of illegal abuse of its monopoly location by imposing restrictions on its competitors for posting competing search ads on the Internet between 2006 and 2016.

In response to this decision, he signed "Adsense" with the three parties to give them more space to display competing search ads.

Alapate, the Google owner, is making a lot of money out of advertising, with data showing a pre-tax profit of $ 30.7 billion in 2018, more than double the $ 12.66 billion recorded in 2017.

"Google has strengthened its dominant position in Internet search advertising and is protected from competitive pressures by imposing non-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party sites," said Margaret Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition and Industry. antitrust legislation.

"This is illegal under EU antitrust rules," she said.

Last year, the European Competition Commission had imposed a Google fine of 4.34 billion euros for using the Android mobile phone system to block competing sites.

Another fine of 2.42 billion euros was inflicted in 2017 due to the manipulation of search results for purchases.

Fine "Ad Sense"

The European Commission has stated that websites often have an integrated search function. When a user uses this feature, the site sends the search results and ads, which appear with the search results.

UNHCR has described Google as an "ad broker and broker".

Google began in 2006 to include "exclusive clauses" in contracts preventing publishers from placing ads from rival companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo on search pages, according to the agency.

Since 2009, Google has started replacing these items with "fixed" items, which means publishers need to keep the most cost-effective space on their search results pages for Google ads and must request a minimum of $ 50,000. # 39; ads.

According to the commission, between 2006 and 2016, Google accounted for more than 70% of the European search brokerage market, more than 90% of the search market and more than 75% of the online search advertising market.