The fine, worth about $1.7 billion, is the third against Google by the European Union since 2017, reinforcing the region’s position as the world’s most aggressive watchdog of an industry with an increasingly powerful role in society and the global economy. The regulators said Google had violated antitrust rules by imposing unfair terms on companies that used its search bar on their websites in Europe.
Europe is at the forefront of a broad debate about the role of tech platforms like Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, and whether their size and power hurt competition.
With the announcement on Wednesday, the European fines against Google total roughly €8.2 billion, or $9.3 billion. But the bloc has not received any of the money yet; Google is appealing the earlier decisions, and is mulling whether to appeal the most recent ruling.
European regulators said the operators of the third-party websites using Google’s search bar had been required to display a disproportionate number of text ads from Google’s own advertising services over competing digital advertising companies.
The practice, regulators said, undercut competitors, such as Microsoft and Yahoo, that were trying to challenge Google in search.
“There was no reason for Google to include these restrictive clauses in its contracts, except to keep its rivals out of the market,” Ms. Vestager said at a news conference in Brussels.
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