Google has appealed against a massive 2.4 billion Euro fine that the EU imposed on it in June, stating that it “respectfully” disagreed with the Commission's decision. The search company was fined for breaking antitrust rules by unfairly placing its own shopping comparison service at the top of its search results, whilst demoting the rankings of competitors. The European Commission concluded that the practice was an abuse of Google's dominance in the search engine market, and amounted to anti-competitive practices. As well as imposing the record-breaking fine, the EU had also ordered Google to stop the practice, warning that the search giant could face further fines for non-compliance. Google's appeal of the EU's decision throws a spanner in the works. If the appeal is successful, it could have consequences for other antitrust cases being investigated by the EU, including a separate investigation into Google's Android operating system. Â
