Google has 10 weeks to respond to the European Commission in a market abuse dominance case that could see it fined up to 10 percent of its recent annual turnover.
European anti-trust regulators on Wednesday (15 April) accused the Internet giant of manipulating search queries on its comparison-shopping service in a preliminary probe launched five years ago.
The American firm received a “statement of objections” that outlines a list of complaints from the Brussels executive.
The latest twist is part of an ongoing series of Google’s anti-competitive practices.
Last year, former competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia struck a deal with Google to resolve issues on how it promotes its own specialised search services on its web page.
But Wednesday’s announcement raised the stakes by not excluding sanctions should claims that Google’s shopping services squeeze out competition and innovation be proved correct.
The contention revolves around “Google shopping”, a service that compares prices between different vendors.
Nikolaj Nielsen