Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) on Friday was hit with a fine of nearly €3B (almost $3.5B) by the European Commission for abusing market power in advertising technology — a penalty that was delayed slightly amid trade threats from U.S. President Trump.
The fine was widely expected to come down on Monday, but an unusual late intervention by Maroš Šefcovic, EU trade commissioner, paused the decision amid tariff pressure from Trump against countries he said were discriminating against U.S. tech.
Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera had pressed to go forward with the fine as planned.
The fine backs up the EC’s existing contention that Google distorted competition in ad-tech in violation of European Union rules.
“It did so by favoring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers,” the EC said in a release.
“The Commission has ordered Google (i) to bring these self-preferencing practices to an end; and (ii) to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. Google has now 60 days to inform the Commission about how it intends to do so,” the EC said.
Alphabet stock stayed higher on Friday in U.S. trading: (NASDAQ:GOOG) +0.8%, (NASDAQ:GOOGL) +0.8%.