Google rolls out shopping tweaks in bid to dodge European Union fine

BRUSSELS: Google will treat its own shopping service the same as rivals when they bid for ads at the top of a search page, the company said on Wednesday, as it seeks to comply with an EU antitrust order and stave off fresh fines.

The European Commission slapped a record €2.4-billion ($2.8 bi l lion) fine on the world’s most popular internet search engine in June and told the firm to stop favouring its shopping service.

Google, a unit of US firm Alphabet, has until September 28 to halt this anti-competitive practice or face a penalty up to 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover.

The company said competitors would be able to bid for ads in the shopping box via an auction, confirming a Reuters report on September 18.

“We’re giving comparison shopping services the same opportunity to show shopping ads from merchants on Google’s search results pages as we give to Google Shopping,” spokesman Al Verney said.

“Google Shopping will compete on equal terms and will operate as if it were a separate business, participating in the auction in the same way as everyone else,” he said. The changes will go into effect on Thursday and apply only in Europe.

The shopping service will operate as an independent unit, with one team working with competing sites and another with merchants, and subjected to regulatory monitoring. The EU competition authority said it had hired auditor KPMG and marketing firm Mavens to help with the task.

“It would be premature at this stage for the Commission to take any definite positions on Google’s plans. As (European Competition) Commissioner Vestager said, ‘this issue will remain on our desks for some time’,” Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said.