Google's fine is big news but the company faces a far bigger threat

The Canadian supreme court ruled that Google can be forced to pull results worldwide, not just the Canadian version of its search engine

Google has come face to face with two of its greatest nightmares this week. The first garnered enormous attention worldwide, and will be an expensive period regardless of how it shakes out; but the second flew below the radar, despite the fact that it could eventually be far more damaging to the company's operating model.

Hitting the headlines was the European Union's record a2.4bn fine of Google for anticompetitive practices relating to its shopping service. At the heart of the issue is the fact that the company treats its shopping search engine - Google Shopping - differently from those of competitors, placing it at the top of searches for products by default, and relegating similar services like price comparison site Kelkoo far down the results.