Regulators in the European Union have decided that they are going to be filing charges against Google. The charges, which are related to a five year antitrust investigation that is ongoing, will be based around the apparent abuse of their market position in the EU according to sources. They will be accused of violating the EU’s laws in this area.
If the case goes through and Google loses, they could be fined as much as $6.6 billion.
It is expected that the EU’s Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, will comment on Wednesday confirming that Google will be served with a statement of objections, commonly called a charge sheet. This will list how the EU is accusing Google of breaching competition law by diverting traffic from rival companies to their own services.
The comments will come when Vestager arrives in the US Wednesday after meeting with the 28 EU commissioners that morning.
While there is still only limited information on this situation, it seems that this is the latest complaint of Google listing their own properties such as YouTube, Maps and others ahead of competitor’s sites that may provide the searchers with better results.
We will be following this case closely as depending on how it goes, it could have some significant impact on marketers. For example, many marketers attempt to rank YouTube videos high in the search results. If Google begins listing fewer YouTube listings in the SERPs, this could directly impact the amount of traffic that is generated.
More information on this case will be published as it comes out.
