EU imposes Google record fines of 2.42 billion euros

The European Commission imposed a record fine of 2.42 billion euros on abuse of dominant position on its price comparator on Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL ), a subsidiary of Alphabet, on Tuesday .

The European executive is now asking Google to end its practices within 90 days or face penalties of up to 5% of Alphabet's average daily turnover.

The fine received by Google is the largest ever imposed by the European Union on an American group. In 2009, the US semiconductor giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC ) had been sanctioned to the tune of 1.06 billion euros, which was the record so far.

By 2016, Alphabet's average daily sales were $ 246.6 million. The fine imposed on Tuesday amounted to 13.9% of the group's net profit in 2016 ($ 19.478 billion) and is equivalent to only 0.4% of its market capitalization ($ 665.57 billion).

The Alphabet share declined 1.3% to 940 dollars in the pre-market transactions on Wall Street.

The group decided to appeal the sanction of the European competition authorities, expressing its disagreement on the reproaches made to it.

He pointed out that the surveys showed that users preferred links that led them directly to the products they were looking for, rather than to sites where they had to do the same research.

"We respectfully express our disagreement with the findings announced today. We will review the Commission's decision in detail for a possible appeal and wish to continue to make our point," said Kent Walker, Director Group, in a statement.

The European executive accused Google of taking advantage of its dominant position in the search engine market by giving a systematic advantage to its comparator called Google Shopping.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU competition rules, it has prevented other companies from competing on the basis of their merits and innovating, and above all it has prevented European consumers from benefiting A real choice of services and to take full advantage of innovation, "said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, quoted in a statement by the European executive.

Google Shopping allows users to compare products and prices online and find deals from distributors and other resellers.

The European Commission opened an investigation into the case seven years after complaints from the US recommendation site, the TripAdvisor-based tour operator, the UK-based comparison site Foundem, the News Corp media group and FairSearch.

The penalties for failure to comply with the Commission's requirements, which have not been specified, would be approximately $ 12 million per day on the basis of Alphabet 2016 revenues of $ 90.3 billion of dollars.

"This decision is changing the situation.The Commission has confirmed that consumers do not have access to what is most relevant to them on the most used search engine in the world but rather what is best for Google" , Said Monique Goyens, Director General of the European Office of Consumer Unions, BEUC.

In the United States, where an investigation had also been opened, Google reached an agreement with the authorities in 2013 promising to stop "deleting" comments and other data from competing websites for its own products.

The European Commission is conducting two more inquiries about Google.

It blames him for using Android to oust competition, an even more important case because his mobile operating system is used in most smartphones.

Google is also under investigation of its advertising platform Adsense, accused of barring competitors in sponsored search.

If the American group was found guilty on these two cases, the Commission warned that it could impose heavy fines on it.