The European Commission's allegations against Google continue to fester, and this time, the EU's top antitrust agency has launched a direct assault on Google's advertising business, wanting to divest this core business segment of Google directly from the company。

On June 14, local time, the European Commission gave a preliminary assessment after investigating Google's alleged monopoly on advertising.。Our initial view is that competition concerns can only be fully addressed if Google forces the divestiture of some of its services.。

If the sanctions go through, it would be a fatal blow to Google's business: public information shows that Google's advertising business contributed nearly 80 percent of its total revenue last year.。According to research firm Insider Intelligence, Google is the world's most dominant digital advertising platform, accounting for 28% of global revenue.。

Last Wednesday, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at a press conference that Google could be forced to divest some of its advertising sales services if the European Commission finds that it is illegal.。She has also previously said that Google is more supportive of its own advertising trading programs than rival projects, strengthening its central role in the advertising technology supply chain and its ability to charge high service fees.。

The European Commission's investigation into Google dates back to June 2021.。At the time, EU regulators questioned the legality of Google's online advertising business and argued that it controlled much of the technology used to shop, sell and serve ads online, an investigation that continues to this day.。

Google entered the European shopping price comparison market in 2004。Since 2008, Google began to use its powerful web search engine to promote the company's "Google Shopping" service, so that "Google Shopping" traffic soared, while other shopping price comparison service traffic plummeted.。

In short, Google is suspected of using its own search engine platform to drain its own shopping platform。

In 2010, the European Commission investigated Google for this behavior, until seven years later, in June 2017, the Commission finally ruled that Google abused its dominant position in the search engine market to provide illegal advantages to other Google products (price comparison shopping services), and decided to issue a 24.A €200 million fine, which at the time was already the largest antitrust fine ever issued by the European Union.。In November 2021, the European General Court rejected Google's appeal against this fine ruling.。

In July 2018, Google was once again given a record 43 by the European Commission..400 million euros in fines for allegedly abusing the Android operating system, violating EU antitrust laws, preventing other companies from gaining a competitive advantage and preventing consumers from benefiting from the comparison.。In 2019, the European Commission fined Google 14 more for crowding out rivals for Internet advertising services..900 million euros, the case is still on appeal。

Add up the three fines and, in theory, Google would have to pay a fine of more than 8 billion euros at the European Commission in six years, which is eye-popping.。

EU regulators have also continued to crack down on potential monopolistic practices by large technology companies.。The most notable of these is Microsoft's historic acquisition of Activision Blizzard。Last November, also out of antitrust concerns, the EU announced an in-depth investigation into the takeover.。It was not until May this year that the EU "conditionally" approved the acquisition plan under the merger regulations.。

In April 2021, the European Commission also accused Apple of monopolistic practices that disrupted competition in the music streaming market, saying the Apple App Store set restrictive rules that forced developers to use Apple's own in-app payment system, Apple Pay, and prevented developers from telling users that there were other purchase options.。

As with Google's previous penalties, the European Commission had previously relied on huge fines against the companies as a warning.。But this time the regulator has adopted an upgraded sanction that has never been used before, requiring Google to split the advertising business on which it depends for a living.。

In response, Google's vice president of global advertising, Dan Taylor, said in a statement that he did not agree with the European Commission's view and would respond accordingly.。He also said that advertising technology tools are helping websites and apps fund their content and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively attract new customers, and that Google remains committed to creating value for its partners in this highly competitive space.。