For Google and its peers the fine may be the beginning of increased regulatory scrutiny across other digital services within their ecosystems, including payments.
The European Commission ruling this morning on Google’s “illegal conduct” of preferential placement for its own Product Listing Ads (PLAs) has far reaching implications.
The company has 90 days to comply and must inform the EU of its plans for implementation within 60 days. In addition to the record breaking 2.4 billion-Euro fine, Google also risks additional fines of up to 5% of daily revenue. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s antitrust chief noted, „As a result of Google’s illegal practices, traffic to Google’s comparison-shopping service increased significantly, whilst rivals have suffered very substantial losses of traffic on a lasting basis.“ The case for bias is clear cut. Rival comparison sites typically appear on the fourth page of search results, robbing them of the 95% of clicks that occur on the first search page.
