The European Union (EU) said on the 23rd it will impose an additional €890 million (about 1.5 trillion won) penalty surcharge on U.S. big tech Google.
The reason is that Google violated the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc's core competition law to regulate the market dominance of large online platforms.
The EU said Google used its virtually monopolistic search engine and its app store Google Play to steer consumers to its own services and applications, disadvantaging rivals.
The EU imposed a €460 million penalty surcharge for Google favoring its own services in search results, and a €430 million penalty surcharge for restricting consumers' access to cheaper alternative channels in the operation of Google Play.
Under the EU's DMA, corporations designated as "gatekeepers" (dominant market operators) cannot treat their own services more favorably than others in search rankings.
The EU determined that Google violated the DMA by placing its own services at the top of search results for shopping, transportation, and tourism, or by displaying them using more prominent visual elements. It also said app developers distributing apps through Google Play must be able to guide consumers for free to other purchase routes and keep open avenues for consumers to buy through alternative platforms such as websites or other app stores, but Google failed to meet these obligations.
Under this measure, Google must implement corrective steps within 60 days. If it fails to do so, the EU may periodically impose a compliance penalty of up to 5% of Google's total worldwide revenue.
In 2018, the EU also imposed a record €4.343 billion (about 7.67 trillion won) penalty surcharge on Google, saying it abused its dominant position related to the Android operating system (OS).