The European Union (EU) has fined Google €890 million (~RM 4.2 billion) for violating digital antitrust rules by using Google Play and Search to direct users to its own services. This, the EU said, harmed competitors.
The move is the latest in a series of EU crackdowns on major tech companies. Google recently lost an appeal against a €4.1 billion antitrust fine over Android's dominance that reduced consumer choice. The fine was imposed in 2018 but Google has been appealing for eight years.
The EU insisted the action was taken to protect consumer rights and ensure products compete fairly. Google said the fine would cause a "decrease in product quality" and force it to remove real-time search features and security protections on Google Play.
Among other things, Google has done in the EU market is provide a default search engine option other than Google Search on Android devices when they are first activated.
