Google has been fined 1.5bn euros by the EU for abusing its monopoly in online advertising, bringing the total cost of punishments imposed on the search giant by Brussels to 8.2bn euros over two years.
谷歌因随意垄断其在线广告领域被欧盟罚款15亿欧元,使欧盟在两年内对这家搜索巨头实施的罚款达到82亿欧元。
The latest ruling means that since 2017 the EU has found Google abused its power in shopping comparison services, its Android mobile phone operating system and now search adverts.
这一最新裁决意味着,自2017年以来,欧盟发现谷歌滥用各方面的权力,包括购物比较服务、安卓手机操作系统以及搜索广告方面。
The 1.5bn euros fine relates to the contracts Google forced businesses to sign if they wanted to use the company's technology to provide search functions on their own websites. Companies could also run adverts alongside those results using Google's AdSense for Search, but the EU said Google used the feature to muscle out competitors.
15亿欧元的罚款与谷歌强迫企业签署的合同有关,如果企业希望在自己的网站上使用该公司的技术提供搜索功能(则需要和谷歌签合同)。公司也可以使用谷歌的AdSense在搜索结果中加入广告,但欧盟表示,谷歌利用这一功能排挤竞争对手。
The misconduct included stopping publishers placing search adverts from competitors on their results pages, forcing them to reserve the most profitable space for Google's adverts and a requirement to seek written approval before making changes to how rival adverts were displayed.
谷歌的不当行为包括阻止出版商在搜索结果页面上放置竞争对手的搜索广告,迫使他们为谷歌的广告预留最有利可图的空间,以及要求在修改竞争对手的广告显示方式之前寻求书面批准。
Commenting on Wednesday's decision, Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner, said: "Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate – and consumers the benefits of competition."
在评论周三的决策时,欧盟竞争委员会委员玛格瑞特·维斯塔格说:"通过对第三方网站施加反竞争的合同限制,谷歌巩固了在线搜索广告的主导地位,并保护自己免受竞争压力。根据欧盟反垄断法,这是违法的。 这种不当行为持续了10多年,剥夺了其他公司凭借实力进行竞争和创新的可能性,也剥夺了消费者从竞争中获益的可能性。
The AdSense advertising case was triggered by a complaint from Microsoft in 2010. Both companies subsequently dropped complaints against each other in 2016. Google stopped the practices at the centre of the EU fine in 2016, meaning that, so long as it does not restart the exclusivity requirements, the punishment, which represents 1.3% of its turnover in 2018, should be the end of the matter.
2010年,微软的一项投诉引发了AdSense广告案。两家公司随后在2016年撤销了对彼此的投诉。谷歌在2016年结束了设计欧盟罚款的相关行为,这意味着,只要它不再出现排他性要求,其2018年营业额1.3%的处罚款标志着此事的结束。
"Google's practices covered over half the market by turnover throughout most of the period," the competition commission said. "Google's rivals were not able to compete on the merits, either because there was an outright prohibition for them to appear on publisher websites or because Google reserved for itself by far the most valuable commercial space on those websites, while at the same time controlling how rival search adverts could appear."
竞争委员会表示:“在这段时间里,按营业额计算,谷歌的做法覆盖了半数以上的市场。”“谷歌的竞争对手不能依法参与竞争,要么是因为出版商的网站完全禁止他们出现,要么是因为谷歌为自己保留了这些网站上迄今为止最有价值的商业空间,同时控制了竞争对手的搜索广告可能出现的形式。"
In a statement, the company said: "We've always agreed that healthy, thriving markets are in everyone's interest. We've already made a wide range of changes to our products to address the commission's concerns. Over the next few months, we'll be making further updates to give more visibility to rivals in Europe."
该公司在一份声明中表示:"我们一直认为,健康、繁荣的市场符合每个人的利益。 我们已经对我们的产品进行了大整改,以解决委员会的担忧。未来几个月,我们将进行进一步更新,以提高欧洲竞争对手的知名度。"
The 1.5bn euros charge is the smallest of the three EU fines the company has received.
这笔15亿欧元的罚款是该公司收到的3笔欧盟罚款中最小的一笔。
In June 2017, it was fined 2.4bn euros for pushing its Google Shopping service on to search engine users in a way that harmed the wider price comparison market.
2017年6月,谷歌被罚款24亿美元,原因是谷歌向搜索引擎用户推广其购物服务,损害了价格比较市场。
A year later, it was fined 4.3bn euros for illegally tying its Android operating system to a raft of other requirements, preventing handset manufacturers from shipping phones without pre-installing Google's search and browser apps.
一年后,谷歌被罚款43亿美元,原因是谷歌非法将其 Android 操作系统与其它一系列外包服务捆绑在一起,导致手机制造商无法在没有预装谷歌搜索和浏览器应用程序的情况下出产手机。
The fines are unlikely to change Google's behaviour without stronger enforcement, said Thomas Vinje, an antitrust partner at law firm Clifford Chance who represented Fairsearch, a group of companies that gave evidence against the company in previous European commission investigations.
律师事务所Clifford Chance的反垄断合伙人托马斯·文杰表示,如果不加大执法力度,罚款不太可能改变谷歌的行为。在欧盟委员会此前的调查中,代表费尔斯赛的一批公司为谷歌提供了不利证据。
He said: "Fines get headlines but frankly are close to irrelevant. It's changes to business conduct that are important."
他说:" 说实话罚款上了报纸头条无关紧要,重要的是商业行为的改变。"
Google is likely to face further competition actions, particularly over its dominance in building detailed profiles of users, Vinje added.
谷歌可能要面临进一步竞争行为,特别是颠覆它在建立用户详细资料的统治地位。
Wednesday's fine landed on the same day Google announced a capitulation to the EU's requirements stipulated in the Android ruling. The company will now offer European Android users a choice over what browser and search engine they use, forcing a selection from both new and existing users.
周三的罚款发生在谷歌宣布对欧盟在安卓裁决中规定的要求投降的同一天。 该公司现在将为欧洲的安卓用户提供使用浏览器和搜索引擎选择的机会,迫使新用户和现有用户同时进行选择。
The policy follows other requirements placed upon manufacturers last October, which allowed them to pre-install other search engines and browsers for European users if they paid Google a fee, rather than using the free version of Android, which the company says is funded by the pre-installation of Search and Chrome.
这项政策是在去年10月对制造商提出其它要求之后出台的。这些要求允许制造商为欧洲用户预装其它搜索引擎和浏览器,前提是他们向谷歌支付费用,而不是使用安卓的免费版本。谷歌表示,其赞助来自谷歌搜索和Chrome的预装。