Google has already been hit with $7 billion in EU antitrust fines. Now it’s reportedly facing a third.

• The EU is gearing up to fine Google once again, sources told the Financial Times.
• EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager will reportedly announce the fine next week following an investigation into Google’s AdSense business.
• The Commission has slapped Google with over $7 billion in fines over the past two years.

The European Commission is gearing up to fine Google once again, the Financial Times reports.

The tech giant has been stung by Europe’s competition watchdog twice in the last two years. In September 2017 it handed Google what was then a record $2.7 billion fine over its shopping service.

Then in July 2018 the Commission smashed that record with a $5 billion fine over Google’s abuse of the dominance of its Android platform. Google has appealed both fines.

Read more: Here are the 3 reasons Google was slapped with an enormous $5 billion fine by the EU

Three sources told the FT that EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager will next week announce a fine following an investigation into Google’s AdSense business.

The case hinges on changes Google brought about in 2006, which required that third-party websites use its ad service if they wanted to include the Google search box on their sites. These restrictions were loosened in 2009, and then phased out from 2016, the FT reports.

The maximum penalty would be 10% of Google’s latest global turnover — which would come to $13 billion — but sources told the newspaper that the penalty is likely to be much lower.

A spokesman for the European Commission declined to comment on the report. Google was not immediately available for comment.

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See Also:

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SEE ALSO: The 7 biggest fines the EU have ever imposed against giant companies

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)