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According to The Wall Street Journal:
The European Union's antitrust regulator on Tuesday fined Alphabet Inc.'s Google a record €2.42 billion ($2.71 billion) for favoring its own comparison-shopping service in search results and ordered the search giant to apply the same methods to rivals as its own when displaying their services.
[...] If the ruling sets a precedent that holds, these firms might all have to rethink how they make products that—like Google's search engine—have become more than just tools, but dominant gateways to the wider internet.
From The New York Times:
While the fine will garner attention, the focus will most likely shift quickly to the changes that Google will have to make to comply with the antitrust decision, potentially leaving it vulnerable to regular monitoring of its closely guarded search algorithm.
CNBC adds that, based on a filing, Google expects to ultimately pay this fine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @11:40AM (3 children)
VW emissions are estimated to have killed people and they were fined 6x more. Can't say that the order of shopping results on Google seems one 6th as important as the extra smog caused by Diesel emissions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:05PM
Such fines are handed down on a regular basis to all manenr of companies, just because all those don't get that much publicity doesn't mean they don't happen (all it means is that the tech media is biased toward tech companies). There's a list of such actions on the commission webpage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 28 2017, @02:32PM (1 child)
Not only that, but you should not go by what VW was fined, you need to look at what they will end up paying. HINT: it will be a fucking fraction!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 30 2017, @02:55PM
Also, how much is VW making and how much goog? I think this is similar to net neutrality as pointed above and thus quite important. Google sadly has a MASSIVE market share.