The European Commission is reportedly set to hand Google a fine for its search practices that could reach 10% of the company’s US$90 billion in revenues. The largest fine for a monopoly abuse case previously levied by the EU was US$1.18 billion.
The ruling will be just the first of three antitrust decisions looming for Google in Europe, and is expected to come with restrictions on Google’s search practices which complainants argue unfairly favor the search engine’s own shopping platform.
Europe has become the frontline of the internet antitrust battle, as a range of both American and European firms have been pushing for action to reign in Google’s power, and the Financial Times writes that a hard line from Europe’s antitrust watchdog could strain transatlantic tensions, already tested by Trump’s climate accord pull out.