On 20 March the European Commission fines Alphabet Inc.’s Google 1.5 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising market. In what it describes as “abusive practices” in online advertising, the Commission found Google broke the EU’s antitrust rules and abused its market dominance by preventing or limiting its rivals from working with companies that had deals with Google. The case revolves around search boxes that are embedded on websites and that display ads brokered by Google. It brings the total Google has been ordered to pay to 8.2 billion euros in EU antitrust probes that have run for nearly a decade. These target the company’s software for Android phones and shopping searches. The advertising revenues that fuel profits for Google and Facebook have come under growing antitrust scrutiny, triggered by complaints from media companies as advertising spend shifts to the web.
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