“Europe accuses Google of abusing dominant market position on Wednesday”

The European Commission plans to accuse Google of abusing its dominant market position on Wednesday. Various media reported this on Tuesday. European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager of Competition would agree to the filing of the complaint.

The Danish European Commissioner would have decided that on Tuesday in consultation with President Jean-Claude Junker. She will update the other European Commissioners about the decision during a formal meeting with him on Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal, among others.

If the accusation is final, it is likely that the largest case for alleged abuse of power will follow after the case against Microsoft, about ten years ago. That company had to pay a fine of half a billion euros for linking Windows Media Player with Windows. For Google, the fine can amount to about 6 billion dollars, or 4.6 billion euros.

The European Commission has been investigating Google and its dominant market position for some time now. About ninety percent of European search traffic goes through this American company. The European Commission suspects that Google would favor its own services in the search results.

Google has had to pay for it in Europe for some time now. For example, the European Parliament adopted a motion calling for the activities of search engines to be separated from other commercial activities. This would cause Google to be split up. In addition, the European Commission is advocating for the next major player on the internet to be European.