Google has been fined €1.5bn (£1.3bn) by the EU for abusing its monopoly in online advertising, bringing the total cost of punishments imposed on the search giant by Brussels to €8.2bn over two years.
The latest ruling means that since 2017 the EU has found Google abused its power in shopping comparison services, its Android mobile phone operating system and now search adverts.
The €1.5bn fine relates to the contracts Google forced businesses to sign if they wanted to use the company’s technology to provide search functions on their own websites. Companies could also run adverts alongside those results using Google’s AdSense for Search, but the EU said Google used the feature to muscle out competitors.
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