Google has been fined €1.5 billion by the European Commission over its advertising rules.
The search engine has been dealt the penalty after European Commission said that Google had been blocking rival online search advertisers.
“Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites.
“This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” commented EC commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
The European Commission also tweeted the following:
Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites.
This is illegal under #EUantitrust rules.
Read more → https://t.co/wGnxS9s4Rn pic.twitter.com/ozLrWUHr72— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) March 20, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsGoogle’s parent company is Alphabet. Alphabet reported in its most recent results pre-tax profits of $30.7 billion (£23 billion) in 2018, a significant increase from $12.66bn in 2017.
This most recent penalty is its third in two years.
Back in July, the tech company was hit by a €4.3 billion over Android.
At the time of the fine, the EU said the firm had used the operating system to illegally “cement its dominant position”.
Meanwhile earlier this year Google was also dealt a record £44 million fine by the French data watchdog CNIL for breaching European privacy laws.
Shares in Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are currently +1.17% as of 11:37AM (GMT).