European Commission Fines Google $5.1 Billion for Violating Anti-trust Laws

The European Commission levied a massive $5.1 billion fine on Google recently for breaching EU anti-trust laws.

The tech giant broke the law by allegedly requiring all smartphone manufacturers to pre-install the Google search engine, app store, and browser on their devices. They also charged Google with paying mobile phone manufacturers to include their search engine exclusively.

According to the commission, these practices enabled Google to cement itself as the number one search engine and promoted an uncompetitive marketplace environment in the mobile sphere.

Just last year, the EU penalized Google with a $2.7 billion fine for lowering shopping comparison tools while promoting its own.

The $5.1 billion fine is the largest ever imposed by the EU.

Google will appeal the decision.

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