Google’s shopping panel started offering rivals ad slot in EU to avoid further fine reported by Bloomberg today.
Google is rolling out changes for it’s rival shopping comparison services to bid for the ad spaces and resell them. It is reported in June that Google was fined 2.4 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) by European Commission for its illegal conduct and to give equal treatment to rival shopping comparison services. The deadline was sept 28, If Google would have failed to meet the deadline then it risks daily fine of up to 5% of its daily global revenue.
“We’re giving comparison shopping services the same opportunity to show shopping ads from merchants on Google’s Search results pages as we give to Google Shopping,” said Al Verney, a spokesman for Google in Brussels. “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.”
EU regulators said thats it’s too soon to say whether the offer is good enough to resolve their concerns. The ball lies in Google’s court. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told — it’s up to the company “to show that they live up to the decision” to grant equal treatment to comparison-shopping services.
The EU will “actively monitor” how Google complies with the order, she said. The company will have to report to the EU every four months, with a first report likely to come in early 2018, she said.
