Google fined USD 1.7 billion for search ad blocks in third EU sanction

Alphabet Inc unit Google was fined 1.49 billion euros (USD 1.7 billion) on Wednesday, its third large European Union antitrust penalty in two years marking the company’s decade-long regulatory battle in Europe.

The EU antitrust chief, however, gave a cautious welcome to Google’s measures to boost competition and give Android users a choice of browsers and search apps, suggesting the company’s regulatory woes may be coming to an end.

The European Commission, which said the fine amounted to 1.29 percent of Google’s turnover in 2018, said that the case focused on the company’s illegal practises in search advertising brokering from 2006 to 2016.