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The European Union slapped a record $2.7-billion fine on Internet giant Google on Tuesday for allegedly taking advantage of its dominance in online searches to direct customers to its own online shopping business.

European regulators gave the Mountain View, Calif., company 90 days to stop or face more fines of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide revenue of its parent company, Alphabet Inc.

Google says it is considering an appeal.

The European Commission, which polices EU competition rules, alleges Google elevates its shopping service even when other options might have better deals.

The commission said Google gave prominent placement in its search results only to its own comparison shopping service, whilst demoting rival services. It stifled competition on the merits in comparison shopping markets.

What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters.

Google says it's just trying to package its search results in a way that makes it easier for people to find what they want.

When you shop online, you want to find the products you're looking for quickly and easily. And advertisers want to promote those same products. That's why Google shows shopping ads, connecting our users with thousands of advertisers, large and small, in ways that are useful for both, Kent Walker, senior vice president at Google, said in a statement.

We will review the commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case, he said.

The fine is the highest ever imposed in Europe for anti-competitive behavior, exceeding a 1.06-billion-euro penalty on Silicon Valley chip maker Intel in 2009.

But the penalty is likely to leave a bigger dent in Google's pride and reputation than its finances. Alphabet has more than $92 billion in cash, including nearly $56 billion in accounts outside of Europe.

Vestager said the commission's probe, which started in 2008, looked at some 1.7 billion search queries. Investigators found that on average even Google Shopping's most highly ranked rivals only appeared on Page 4 of Google search results. Vestager said that 90% of user-clicks are on Page 1.

As a result, competitors were much less likely to be clicked on, she said.

It is up to Google to decide what changes it wants to make to comply with the commission's ruling, but any remedy must ensure that rival companies receive the same treatment as Google Shopping.

We will monitor Google's compliance closely, Vestager said.

She noted that any company or person who has suffered damages due to the company's practices can make claims to national courts.

More broadly, Vestager said, the probe has established that Google is dominant in general Internet search in all 31 countries of the European economic area. This will affect other cases the European Commission might build against the Internet giant's various businesses, such as Google Images.

She also noted that regulators are making good progress in their other Google probes into Android and search advertising, and that the preliminary conclusion is that they breach EU antitrust rules.

The commission has come under fire in the United States for a perceived bias against U.S. companies.

Vestager said that she has examined statistics concerning antitrust, merger control and state aid decisions and that she can find no facts to support any kind of bias.

Alphabet shares fell 2.5% on Tuesday to $948.09.

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UPDATES:

3:50 p.m.: This article was updated with Alphabets stock movement.

6:35 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and context, and with comments from Margrethe Vestager and Kent Walker.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.

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European Union fines Google a record $2.7 billion for ...

Brussels:The European Union and Britain on Friday tripped over the first item in their Brexit talks protecting the rights of each other's citizens highlighting the potential for trouble ahead in their marathon negotiations.

Representational image. AP

While British prime minister Theresa May declared that she had offered a "fair and serious" proposal on citizens' rights, European Union chief Donald Tusk dismissed it as falling "below our expectations." Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said "thousands of questions" remained on the key topic.

The 27 European Union leaders demanded many more details on the United Kingdom proposal to guarantee the rights of the 3 million European Unioncitizens who now live in Britain.

Since many of those citizens will want to stay even as Britain itself leaves the European Union, it is an immediate issue where May has a lot of leverage. The British leader is insisting that the European Union needs to give the 1.5 million Britons living on the continent equal respect. She will outline a more detailed proposal next Monday, when May addresses her parliament in London.

Alongside citizens' rights, the Brexit negotiators will address the substantial bill that Britain will have to pay to quit the European Union and the problems surrounding the border in Ireland.

"I want to reassure all those European Union citizens who are in the United Kingdom, who've made their lives and homes in the United Kingdom, that no one will have to leave, we won't be seeing families split apart. This is a fair and serious offer," May said.

Yet many European Union leaders were nonplussed by May's offer, saying there was a clear deal to leave such Brexit issues to the top negotiators, Michel Barnier for the European Union and David Davis for Britain.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said May's move was "not yet the breakthrough" that EU nations were looking for, adding "there is a long road in front of us." Tusk agreed.

"My first impression is that the United Kingdom's offer is below our expectations, and that it risks worsening the situation of citizens," Tusk said. "It will be for our negotiating team to analyse the offer line by line."

Exactly one year after British voters chose to leave the European Union and after months of political chaos at home, a weakened May sent her team into the Brexit negotiations that began Monday. The issue of citizens' rights was seen as her strongest point to make an immediate impact.

Many said she missed the mark.

"We don't want to buy a pig in a poke," said Belgian prime minister Charles Michel, calling May's opening "an extremely vague proposal for something that is incredibly complicated."

May promised that the fate of European Union citizens would be a priority in Brexit negotiations. She laid out benchmarks for their rights and said they should be shielded from excessive harm because of the political divorce.

German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel said preserving residency rights for European Unioncitizens was such an indisputable goal that any stumbles over the issue showed how fraught the talks would be.

"The situation must be really tense if such an obvious thing is now considered as news. Of course people should at least have the right to stay, that is a minimum and personally I cannot imagine things differently," Gabriel said in Paris.

Under May's proposal, European Unioncitizens with legal residence in the United Kingdom will not be asked to leave and will be offered a chance to regularize their situation after Brexit. May also promised to cut the burdensome bureaucracy such paperwork can involve. European Union citizens now face an imposing 85-page form to tackle if they want to stay.

Continued here:
Brexit: Britain, European Union clash over first proposal on protecting citizens' rights - Firstpost

Human rights are under threat across the EU, says FRA Director Michael OFlaherty. But the goodwill and support for the vulnerable in so many places around Europe should give us hope. We need to harness this positivity to ensure that human rights remain the bedrock of our societies. And we must do much more to show that human rights are not just for a select few, but for everyone.

Let us make now the time, when we end the scourge of poverty, within our European Union and beyond, as part of our commitment to secure the rights and freedoms of all, said Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. Let us affirm the fundamental dignity of all human beings, by acting upon our duty to strive for the best interests all individuals and communities, and especially, the most vulnerable members of our society.

The EU is facing persisting high poverty levels and rates of youth unemployment demoralising to those entering the labour market for the first time. We are also witnessing political groupings that seek to capitalise on fears within the population for their own short-term electoral gains by championing nationalist and sometimes racist agendas. All of this increases the importance and difficulty of communicating human rights, whether as an expert in the field, a politician, or a journalist.

Is Europe doing enough to protect fundamental rights? will take stock of human rights developments in the EU over the last 10 years. The symposium will address the three most burning issues on the EUs policy agenda by focusing on migration and asylum, insecurity and fear, and poverty and social exclusion. Particular attention will be paid to the childrens perspective, and children themselves will take part in the event as speakers and commentators.

FRAs annual flagship Fundamental Rights Report and Opinions, now available in all EU languages, will be presented at the symposium, and together the Agencys new report on the detention of child migrants will form the backdrop to the discussions.

For further information please contact: media@fra.europa.eu

Tel.: +43 1 580 30 642

The event will be livestreamed from 9am CET on 28 June here. The event hashtag is #rightsreport17.

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Is Europe doing enough to protect fundamental rights? - EU News

The European Union (EU) is fining Google 2.42 billion ($2.73 billion) for abusing its dominant position in the search engine market to promote its own comparison shopping service. The penalty is more than twice the 1.1 billion ($1.2 billion) fine that had been expected. It also dwarfs the largest monopoly fine to date, a 1.06 billion ($1.9 billion) fine against Intel in 2008.

The company has also been ordered to cease its behavior with regard to its comparison shopping service within 90 days or face additional fines of up to five percent of parent company Alphabets worldwide daily revenues. The decision comes as the result of a multiyear investigation into the companys business practices in the European market.

With Market Dominance Comes Special Responsibility

According to the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU, Google systematically gave prominent placement to its own comparison shopping service over the results of competitors. The service, launched in 2008 in European markets, relied on Googles dominance in the Internet search market to make up for its weakness among competing comparison shopping services.

The EC also found Google guilty of demoting its rivals in its search results. According to the commission, the company included a number of criteria in its search algorithms specifically designed to demote its rivals.

"Evidence shows that even the most highly ranked rival service appears on average only on page four of Google's search results, and others appear even further down," the EC stated in a statement. "Google's own comparison shopping service is not subject to Google's generic search algorithms, including such demotions."

As a result, Google's service was given much more visibility on its search results relative to its competitors. The commission found this preferential behavior gave Google a significant advantage relative to its rivals, a breach of EU antitrust rules. While market dominance is not illegal under EU antitrust laws, companies that are found to have a dominant position are subject to a "special responsibility" not to abuse their positions to stifle competition.

A Sign of Things To Come

As a result of the ruling, Google will now be forced to give equal treatment to its rivals as well as its own comparison shopping service within its search results. For its part, Google has said it disagrees with the commission's finding and is considering appealing the case.

The decision may also represent a sign of things to come on future rulings. The EU has two other investigations currently open into Google's business practices in other services: one involving its Android operating system and another concerning its AdSense service. In both cases, the commission has already reached a preliminary finding that Google has abused its dominant position to give itself an illegal advantage over its competitors.

The ruling also opens the possibility of further legal action against Google by competitors claiming to have been injured by the Internet giant's business practices. That could spell tough times ahead for the company, at least when it comes to its EU businesses.

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European Union Fines Google a Whopping $2.73 Billion for Abuse - CIO Today

June 26, 2017 2:51 PM

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BRUSSELS (CBSMiami/AP) Top trade officials with the European Union say the bloc is preparing retaliatory measures if the United States imposes steel tariffs on imports.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said the bloc was making preparations to retaliate in the event the U.S. introduces new tariffs.

Malmstroem said Monday that the EU would study any action by Washington to see whether the move complies with the rules of the World Trade Association, the body that oversees global trade.

She added that the indications are that the EU would be unjustifiably hit.

One reason why Donald Trump became president was his promise to revive American steel. That helped him win states like Pennsylvania.

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European Union Weighs Retaliation If US Imposes Steel Tariffs - CBS Miami