Clock ticking on Google as $2.7 billion fine takes bite out of earnings

Enlarge (credit: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images)

Google's parent company Alphabet has-with relative ease-gulped down the record a2.4 ($2.7 billion) fine slapped on the ad giant by the antitrust wing of the European Commission in June, following a long-running probe of the company's abuse of dominance in Europe's search market.

On Monday, Alphabet reported second quarter net income of $3.52 billion-down 28 percent from the same period a year ago-due to what it said was "the impact of the $2.7 billion European Commission (EC) fine." Alphabet shares barely wobbled, however, following the Q2 results, which saw sales climb to $26 billion, up 21 percent year-on-year. While earnings per share stood at $5.01.

Google is yet to confirm whether it plans to appeal against the penalty, which Brussels' competition chief Margrethe Vestager meted out to the company after she concluded that it had breached EU rules "by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors."

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