BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (Reuters) – The European Commission said on Wednesday it was “in dialogue with Google” over actions the company may take in response to the $1 billion fines imposed by the EU in July and required changes to its app store and its search engine.
The Commission has fined Alphabet’s Google €460 million ($511.43 million) and €430 million respectively for favouring its own services in shopping, hotels, transport and sports search results and for the restrictions for app developers on its app store Google Play.
“We are currently in dialogue with Google, so I’ll not prejudge the outcome of this dialogue, but I can guarantee you that the Commission services are currently in dialogue with Google precisely on this issue,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier said during a daily EU press briefing.
The Commission ordered Google to comply with recommendations to treat rivals in a fair and non-discriminatory manner and allow app developers to steer users away from its app store within 60 days.
The Commission is aware that Google has already started implementing changes to its search engine results and has announced and implemented some changes to the service fees for app developers on Google Play, the spokesperson’s office said in a statement.
“The Commission will carry out a thorough assessment of the measures. As part of this assessment, the Commission will seek the views of market operators and third parties,” the statement said.
($1 = 0.8994 euros)
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Tomasz Janowski)
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