Google, which has been accused of distorting search results to favor its own content, has been granted more time to respond to the charges from the European Union (EU). This is not the first time Google has been accused of violating policies or playing with consumers’ privacy, but the time is eventually approaching for the internet firm to answer or be fined for its actions.
Google gets one more chance
“We have asked the European Commission for additional time to review the documents they’ve provided us,” and the Commission agreed to extend the deadline to Aug. 17, a Google spokesman said. In other words, we can also say that Google got one more chance to justify its act of using its market domination in a dozen EU countries or else be fined, probably in the billions of euros.
In mid-April, the EU accused the internet firm of violating its laws and granted it 10 weeks to respond to the allegations. Citing sources, Reuters reports that the internet firm was earlier told to respond by July 7, and as per Ricardo Cardoso, an EU Commission spokesman, “Google asked for additional time to review the documents in the case file,” which was granted by the commission.
Google has failed three times in the past two years to settle the case with previous EU chief Joaquin Almunia.
Google may face big fine if found guilty
According to the EU, from 2007, excluding the Czech Republic, Google has been dominating Europe. Its suspected misuse and manipulations were allegedly underway in Britain and Germany in January 2008, in France in October 2010 and in Italy, the Netherlands and Spain in May 2011.
Some EU documents viewed by Reuters show that Google is suspected of violating laws in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Sweden since November 2013. If the charges imposed on Google are found to be true, the commission, in a charge sheet to the company, said it would “set the fine at a level sufficient to ensure deterrence,” according to Reuters.
The EU has already made it clear that if found guilty, then the penalty would be calculated on the basis of Google’s Adwords revenue collected from European consumers and gross turnover from its associated shopping services in the 12 European nations and gross revenue from search.
