Google set to pay € 3 Billion fine for manipulating results

[universal4]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/google-...ission-report/

It appears Google will no longer try to fight the fine a record € 3 Billion.

Maybe the commission should look into why they show paid results as organic results since they actually got real results in this case.

Rick
Universal4

[sweetbet]

"The European Union has accused Google of promoting its shopping service in internet searches at the expense of rival services in a case that has dragged on since late 2010."

"Google will also be banned from continuing to manipulate search results to favour itself and harm rivals, the newspaper said."

I wonder how that will be policed

[dfiocch]

Noooooo! It's a lie, of course (damn... this statement sounds familiar during these days i don't know why...)

[Triple7]

But Facebook manipulating political news seem to be ok for this same EU...

[xecutable]

Who gets the fine money? I've always wondered where do such huge sums go to. I doubt it's charity though with this amount of money you can probably feed everyone in Africa.

[nwalker]

Who gets the fine money? I've always wondered where do such huge sums go to. I doubt it's charity though with this amount of money you can probably feed everyone in Africa.

I suspect that the fine money will go to the European Commission.

It's quite normal for fines to go to the regulators, look at the FA and the Financial Regulatory bodies, they get all the fine money. In the case of the FCA, the fines paid to them more than cover the costs of providing the regulatory service.

[Schwarz]

Oh if I only had 3 billion dollars...

[KimKim]

Hard time for Google At least they won a case against Oracle

[pokeraussie]

So does anyone know what they actually did? Because that article is extremely vague.

[KimKim]

There is an antitrust law in EU, which is, in other words, forbids monopolys. Google broke this law by abusing its dominance, which means they became a monopoly and eliminated their competitors. To be more specific, Google unfairly prioritazed and displayed its own comparison shopping service at the top of its search results at the expense of the rival products.

[pokeraussie]

I got the impression they were talking about google shopping results. Does this have to do with the regular SERPs?

[Magic-Johnson]

And now imagine that you have that amount of money

[KimKim]

I got the impression they were talking about google shopping results. Does this have to do with the regular SERPs?

Good question! I think it goes both ways

[Vivi Fox]

Amazing info, so finally it was done.

[JeanIA]

Wow... same thing happened with the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S before but they dropped the charges....! Wonder if this will open another can of worms.

[TheGooner]

Wow - just wow.
Good news for affiliate if Google change their ways .. (if ... )

[TheSpry]

While I like seeing it get stuck to google... let's think about this. I create a product (a search engine) that everyone loves and uses. I don't force anyone to use my product. I also tweak my product to favor things that make me money from my product. Other people with bigger guns tell me that's not allowed, give me $3 billion.

I know that's a super simple way to look at it but jeeze man.

[KimKim]

While I like seeing it get stuck to google... let's think about this. I create a product (a search engine) that everyone loves and uses. I don't force anyone to use my product. I also tweak my product to favor things that make me money from my product. Other people with bigger guns tell me that's not allowed, give me $3 billion.

I know that's a super simple way to look at it but jeeze man.

True! I also don't get along with this antitrust law. I created a product, it's the best, everybody wants it. Go ahead and create even better one, instead of fining me

[universal4]

While true to a degree, the antitrust laws are all about now taking that market dominance and using that power AGAINST your competitors in such a manor as not allowing them any kind of fair way to enter the market, let alone compete in any reasonable way.

I also believe in a fair market system, but I have mixed emotions about a handful of dominant companies which have gained too much power based upon that dominance.

I wonder if this case will cause them to alter their ways, or will they do just enough in the countries where their hand is forced. And by NOT looking at the difference between what is organic results and what is paid results is the line in the sand for fairness to every web property in the world.


Rick
Universal4