The European Union has hit Google with a new antitrust fine of €1.5 billion. EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager spoke at a press conference on 20th March 2019. She said that Google had abused its position by forcing customers to sign contracts saying they would not accept advertising from rival search engines.

The misconduct lasted over 10 years. During the time, Google denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate.

This is the third major penalty that the EU has levied against Google in recent times. They received a fine of €4.3 million in 2018 for abusing their mobile market dominance. In 2017, they were also fined €2.4 billion for manipulating shopping search results.

The tech giant is currently appealing both cases.

Google’s total EU antitrust bill now stands at €8.2 billion. In 2016, the tech giant got a heavy fine. But it has since worked with the European Commission to change its AdSense policies.

Vestager also said that the changes made by Google after the case has increased the visibility of rivals from 6 per cent of search results to 40 per cent.

She also added that after the antitrust case made against Android, Google has decided this week to give users a choice about the browser and search engine they use on their phones. This is as against simply pre-installing Google’s own services.