Google yet again faces serious rap from the European Union on Wednesday as authorities fine a record $5.1 billion USD (€4.34bn; £3.8bn) over the tech behemoth's antitrust case.
This follows after last year's ruckus over online shopping search service which cost the US tech firm $3.7 billion USD.
According to reports, Google has used its mobile operating system Android as a means to monopolize the search engine race by automatically including its own search and other apps in devices running the aforementioned OS.
Margrethe Vestager, head of the European regulators seeing the antitrust case, said that Google's business practices are making it impossible for competitions to thrive.
More than 80 percent of the world's smartphones run on Android.
"Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine," the antitrust chief said. "These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere."
For Vestager, the common scenario would be for average tech consumers to "simply take what comes with their device," thus greatly disregarding competing apps. Although they are advertised as "free," the EU official said that the customers actually "pay with their data" to gain access to such services from Google.
Meanwhile, the European Commission ordered the firm, and its parent company, Alphabet, 90 days to alter its "serious illegal behavior." This means Google might have to put an end to its contractual deals with smartphone manufacturers and telecom providers concerning the sole availability of Google's products on their devices.
If not met, the Mountain View, California-based tech haven will face additional penalties of up to 5 percent of its total daily revenue worldwide.
On hindsight, the imposed fine could hardly put a dent on Alphabet Inc's pocket given that the said figure hardly amounts to the company's revenue made in a span of two weeks, reports indicate.
Google said that it has plans to make an appeal.
On a press release, Google CEO Sundar Pichai argued that the company's business model has in fact, "created more choice for everyone, not less."
"Rapid innovation, wide choice, and falling prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition and Android has enabled all of them," Pichai said.
EU's takedown on companies such as Google and Facebook is part of the commission's aggressive stance against US-based tech firms in areas such as user-privacy, antitrust, and questionable tax practices.
