Google Penalized by European Union for Unethical AdSense Practices
Last updated June 14, 2021
- Google is set to be penalized for hindering competition through its AdSense platform.
- It will be the third fine to be imposed on the tech giant by the European Union over antitrust policies.
- Google believes that a hefty fine will not cause long term harm to the company.
The European Union has fined Google twice in the recent past that has led to the tech giant losing 6.7 billion euros ($7.6 billion), but it seems like the authorities are not just done yet with the tech giant’s AdSense practices being punished. AdSense has been investigated for over eight years by the EU and Google was first called out in 2016 for hindering competition through its advertising.
In July 2018, Google was fined 4.3 billion euros for forcing Android device manufacturers to offer the tech giant’s search engine as the default option along with other apps like Maps, Hangouts and more. Another fine of 2.4 billion euros was imposed on Google after the EU found the company guilty of skewing search results to keep smaller shopping search services away. After the decision to fine Google was finalized by the European Union, the tech giant did not comment on the situation.
News sources have estimated the fine for AdSense practices to be smaller than both of the previous penalties Google had to pay to the EU. With AdSense being replaced by other products and the EU’s pattern of imposing fines based of revenue earned by infringing services, the fine is likely going to be too small to impact the tech giant much in the long run, considering the ad platform has been on the decline for years.
Amidst the controversy, the Danish European Commissioner panel was called out for singling out targets in the US like Apple and Amazon for special treatment, but all claims have been rejected. The fine amount will be finalized in the coming weeks, and it remains to be seen if Google contests the EU’s judgment.
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