According to people familiar with the situation, Google, a unit of Alphabet, may face antitrust charges in relation to its digital advertising business next year because EU authorities are upset with how slowly settlement negotiations with the corporation are moving along.
Despite efforts during the previous ten years to expand into selling devices, subscription services, and cloud computing technology, Alphabet’s advertising division still generates around 80% of the company’s annual revenue. In June of last year, the European Commission opened an investigation into Google’s adtech division because it was worried that the American tech giant would be gaining an unfair advantage over competitors and customers.
The corporation later tried to settle the lawsuit, but the concessions were small and only very tentatively accepted, one of the sources said. The company is now at risk of receiving its fourth billion-euro fine. EU antitrust sanctions against Google have totaled more than 8 billion euros ($7.7 billion) over the past ten years. One of the persons stated that although the timetable may yet alter, the EU competition enforcer is likely to issue the charges early in the following year.
The Commission chose not to respond. The owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta Platforms Inc., as well as the world’s second-largest seller of internet advertising, Google, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
