Google fined ~$166 million by France over search ads

Enlarge / Mountain View, Calif. - May 21, 2018: Exterior view of a Googleplex building, the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. (credit: Getty Images / zphotos)

European regulators have generally taken a harder line against anti-competitive behavior than their counterparts in the US. Ask Intel and Microsoft about their multibillion-euro fines if you doubt. This time it's Google in the crosshairs, as Autoriti(C) de la concurrence, France's competition authority, hit the advertising giant with a a150 million ($166 million) fine Friday morning for abusing its dominant position in online advertising.

At issue are the ads that appear next to search results. France's competition authority says that Google rules governing how and when advertisers can show their ads next to search results are applied in an "unfair and random manner."

Autoriti(C) de la concurrence's investigation dates back several years, and it's based on a complaint made by Gibmedia, a French Web services and micropayments firm. Gibmedia had been booted from Google's ad platform for running ads that "deceived people into paying for services on unclear billing terms," according to a statement Google gave to Tech Crunch.

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