Google hit with $1B fine in Europe

The European Union fined Google about $1 billion on Thursday for violating its digital competition law, finding the company improperly favored its own products in Google Search and limited developers from directing users to third-party app stores.

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, hit the company with a 460 million euro fine and a 430 million euro fine over the two violations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

“Google has fallen short of effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and today we have taken decisive yet balanced enforcement action sanctioning these breaches,” Teresa Ribera, the commission’s top competition regulator, said in a statement.

“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” she continued. “And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the........

© The Hill