The European Commission has announced that the company Google has been fined 890 million euros for violating search rules and rules related to application trade. The company says the penalty is “product degradation”
The European Commission announced that the company Google fined 460 million euros for violations of rules related to search, as well as 430 million euros for violations of rules related to the trade of applications.
Brussels assessed that Google prioritized its own services such as Google Play and offers for hotels over competitors’ services in searches.
The European Commission ordered the company to act fairly and non-discriminatory towards third-party services, as well as to allow application developers to offer services outside the Google application store.
From Brussels, they state that Google has already started testing changes in the way search results such as shopping and flights are displayed, assessing that these changes represent an important step towards compliance with the rules. Of the European Union.
“Search results will be different in Europe, and search engines will have to adapt in the future,” it said from Brussels.
Google sees the penalty as “product degradation”
Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, criticized the decision, saying the penalty represented “product degradation” that he said was initiated by a small group of complainants and would negatively impact European companies and consumers.
Walker also stated that the EU Law on Digital Markets forces Google to cancel some real-time search functions, such as displaying prices and availability, hotels, restaurants and flights, as well as certain security protections on Google Play.
Source: FoNet, Danas, Vreme
