Google’s romantic, if not toxic, relationship with the EU’s antitrust watchdog is likely to drag on into next year, as it could be sued over its digital advertising business, threatening the company with a fourth EU fine of more than €1 billion.
In June last year, the European Commission opened an investigation into Google’s Adtech business on the grounds that Google might gain an unfair advantage over competitors and advertisers.
The European Commission has also requested that third parties remove confidential information from their submissions, a condition for granting Google access to documents after receiving a Statement of Objections, as some companies prefer to identify the specific regulatory concerns before proposing solutions.
If found guilty of the charges, Google faces a fourth billion euro fine, even though it has already paid more than 8 billion euros ($7.7 billion) in EU antitrust fines.
Knowing this, knowing that it attempted to settle the case through concessions, but the concessions were minor and very preliminary, and Google is expected to make additional concessions to settle the investigation and avoid charges.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.