PARIS (Reuters) - France’s competition watchdog on Friday fined Google (GOOGL.O) 150 million euros ($167 million) for abusing its dominant market position by applying opaque and unpredictable rules on its Google Ads advertising platform.
It is the first penalty imposed by the French antitrust watchdog against the U.S. tech company, which faces a growing number of investigations into its business practices on both sides of the Atlantic.
Google said it would appeal the decision.
The French regulator said it had found Google had a lack of objectivity and predictability in defining the rules on Google Ads, the gateway for advertisers that wish to appear in the sponsored section of search results.
With a market share of around 90% in the online search business, Google has the responsibility to offer a fair access to Google Ads, the regulator said.
“One of the great principles of competition law is that with great power comes great responsibility,” the head of the authority, Isabelle de Silva, said at a news conference.
“It’s also Spider-Man’s motto,” she added, referring to the fictional superhero.
The authority’s investigation took four years and followed a complaint filed by Gibmedia, a French company that manages a range of websites offering weather forecasts, corporate data and directories.
Gibmedia had accused Google of having suspended its Google Ads account without notice.
The regulator said that by changing its terms of use and rules at will, Google had abused its market power.
“The way the rules are applied give Google a power of life or death over some small businesses that live only on this kind of services,” de Silva said.
