European authorities on Wednesday fined Google
1.5 billion euros for allegedly breaching trust rules in the online advertising
market, continuing its efforts to dominate in the world’s biggest technology
companies.
The fine, worth about $1.7 billion, is the
third sanction against Google by the European Union since 2017, re-iterating
the region’s position as the world’s most aggressive watchdog of an industry
with an increasingly powerful role in society and the global economy. The
regulators said Google had violated antitrust rules by imposing unfair terms on
companies that used its search bar on their websites in Europe.