Months after it was fined $2.7 billion for positioning its own shopping comparison service at the top of Google search results, online search giant has now filed an appeal against the European Commission order. Company did not disclose anything about its strategy for the case. When asked “Google said it had no further comment,” reported BBC.
In its June 2017 ruling, the EU top anti-trust body had criticised US-based company for abusing its its market dominance as a search engine by giving advantage to another Google product – comparison shopping service. The Commission had asked Google to end the practice within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company. The last date to meet these requirements is September 28. The fine imposed on Google was one of the largest penalty ever levied by the regulator.
At that time European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has praised company for its innovative services but asked it to end its illegal practice of promoting its own products. “Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing. But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors,” she had said in a statement.
According to reports, Google has submitted details of how it planned to stop favoring its shopping service and comply with the EU order. Some reports also suggests that regulators are continuing to investigate two other charges, including whether the Android mobile operating system is being used to promote other Google products at an unfair disadvantage to rivals.
