Google has announced that its Google Shopping service will now operate as a separate company in order to comply with the European Commission's antitrust ruling. In June this year, the EU found Google guilty of illegal antitrust practices for unfairly giving higher rankings to its own Google Shopping listings and demoting the rankings of competitors. The search giant was fined 2.4 billion Euros and ordered to change its practices by the 28th of September or face further fines. By separating Google Shopping from the rest of the company, Google will now treat it like any other external price comparison website and give it the same opportunities to bid to appear in its search results as all other websites. A spokesperson from Google commented on the changes, saying: “We're implementing a remedy to comply with the European Commission's recent decision. Google Shopping will compete on equal terms and will operate as if it were a separate business, participating in the auction in the same way as everyone else.” The European Commission has not yet commented on whether the changes go far enough.Â
