Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief, announced on Thursday a new round of charges against Google, claiming that some of the company’s advertising products restricted consumer choice.
The antitrust charges are the latest effort by Ms. Vestager to rein in Google’s activities in the European Union, where the company already holds a roughly 90 percent share in the region’s search market.
The commission has “raised concerns that Google has hindered competition by limiting the ability of its competitors to place search adverts on third party websites, which stifles consumer choice and innovation,” Ms. Vestager said in a statement on Thursday. “If our investigations conclude that Google has broken E.U. antitrust rules, the Commission has a duty to act to protection European consumers and fair competition on European markets.”
The new charges relate to some of the technology giant’s online advertising tools — the main engine for Google’s $75 billion in annual revenues — and parts of the company’s search business linked to online shopping.
Google said in a statement that it would provide a detailed response to the charges “in the coming weeks,” but added: “We believe our innovations and product improvements have increased choice for E.U. consumers and promote competition.”
How Europe Is Going After Google, Amazon and Other U.S. Tech Giants
The biggest American tech companies face intensifying scrutiny by European regulators, with — pressure that could potentially curb their sizable profits in the region and affect how they operate around the world.
Other Silicon Valley tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Facebook also have faced regulatory investigations in Europe, raising questions over whether the region’s lawmakers are specifically focusing on these American giants that have come to dominate much of the digital world. European officials deny any such bias.
Since early 2015, the region’s competition authorities have filed antitrust charges against some of Google’s search services and Android, its mobile operating system that is used in 76 percent of the smartphones across the European Union.
Officials have accused Google of abusing its dominant market position to favor some of its own digital products, like online search and Google Maps, over those of rivals like Yelp and Microsoft. Google denies any wrongdoing in those cases, saying that it faces robust competition from European and American rivals.
Google could face fines of up to 10 percent of its global annual revenues if it is found to have broken Europe’s tough competition rules.
The latest antitrust charges focus on complex advertising contracts between Google and companies that want to use its advertising services and search product on their websites.
Europe’s competition officials are expected to say that Google may have forced companies to sign up to onerous terms that limited competitors from offering rival advertising options on these websites, potentially limiting consumer choice.
These specific advertising activities are related to AdSense for Search and AdWords, two of Google’s advertising services, which also have been reviewed by American and Canadian antitrust officials in the past. Google denies any wrongdoing.
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