Google faces fourth EU fine exceeding €1bn

Google could face EU antitrust charges next year over its digital advertising business, according to reports by Reuters.

This would be the company’s fourth fine in the EU of more than a billion euros. The search engine’s ad business generated over $100 billion in sales last year and accounted for 80% of the revenue made by its parent company Alphabet.

The European Commission began investigating the adtech business in June last year over concerns the company had an unfair advantage over its competitors and other advertisers. The Commission has asked third parties to erase confidential details in their submission, which indicates they will allow Google to access these documents following the receipt of a statement of objections.

Google could prevent the charges by offering more concessions to settle the investigation.

This follows the news that Google failed to overturn a €4.3 billion fine when it was found to have breached competition rules by requiring phone manufacturers to install Google’s browser and search apps for carrying Google’s Play app store.

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