Google fined 150 million euros by France over anti-competitive behaviour

Google — one of the world’s biggest Technology companies — is reported to have been fined 150 million euros ($167 million) by France’s competition authority. According to reports, the France’ competition authority fined Google for anti-competitive behaviour and for having not clear advertising on the Google Ads page.

The 150 million euros fine comes as France and several other European countries maintain high levels of scrutiny on major U.S. tech companies including Google, Facebook , Apple and Amazon. Notably, the technology companies are often criticised for having relatively low tax payments.

As per a report in Reuters, in September this year, Google agreed to pay almost 1 billion euros to French authorities to settle a fiscal fraud probe that began almost four years back. Google has also faced growing regulatory scrutiny about the contents and products it promote in search results and ads.

Isabelle de Silva, head of the French competition authority, told news conference that Google`s dominance in the online advertising business was “extraordinary”, with the U.S company having a market share of around 90% in that field.

As per the report, Google would appeal the fine. It is to be noted that this is not the first time Google has been fined for abusing its dominant position on the market for advertising linked to web searches. In January this year, France`s data protection watchdog fined Google 50 million euros for breaching European Union online privacy rules.

In January, the French watchdog stated that Google lacked transparency and clarity in the way it informed users about its handling of personal data, and had failed to properly obtain their consent for personalised ads.

Source: Reuters