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Google hit with $3.5 billion fine from European Union in ad-tech antitrust case

The decision came more than two years after the European Commission announced antitrust charges against Google
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European Union regulators on Friday hit Google with a 2.95 billion euro ($3.5 billion) fine for breaching the bloc’s competition rules by favouring its own digital advertising services, marking the fourth such antitrust penalty for the company as well as a retreat from previous threats to break up the tech giant.

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The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch and top antitrust enforcer, also ordered the US tech giant to end its “self-preferencing practices” and take steps to stop “conflicts of interest” along the advertising technology supply chain.

Google said the decision was “wrong” and that it would appeal.

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“It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global head of regulatory affairs, said in a statement.

The decision was long overdue, coming more than two years after the European Commission announced antitrust charges against Google.

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