Google hit with $1 billion fine for breaking digital antitrust rules

The European Union has fined Google 890 million euros ($1 billion) on Thursday for pushing consumers toward its own apps and services, the biggest penalty a company has received under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act.

App developers, publishers and Google’s rivals have long argued that the company’s search and Android platforms box them out of consumers.

Regulators find Google guilty

Google was said to have favored its own shopping, travel and translation results in search while demoting competitors further down the page. The European Commission also claimed the tech giant blocked Android developers from pointing customers to cheaper payment options outside the Google Play Store.

Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice president who oversees competition policy, said the ruling revolved around consumer protection. “The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” Ribera stated. She added that the goal was to preserve “fairness, choice and innovation.”

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