欧盟对谷歌开出24亿欧元反垄断罚单

Brussels has hit Google with a 2.42bn antitrust fine for abusing its dominance in search, a decision with potentiAlly far-reaching implications for both the tech sector and already-strained transatlantic relations.

欧盟(EU)以滥用搜索主宰地位为由对谷歌(Google)处以24.2亿欧元反垄断罚款，这一决定可能对科技行业和本已紧张的欧美关系产生深远影响。

The European Commission ended its seven-year competition investigation on Tuesday, concluding that the search group had abused its near-monopoly in online search to “give illegal advantage” to its own shopping service.

欧盟委员会(European Commission)周二结束了长达7年的竞争调查，得出结论称，这家搜索集团滥用其在网络搜索领域近乎垄断的地位，向其自己的购物服务“给予非法优势”。

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, said Google “denied other companies the chance to compete” and left consumers without “genuine choice”.

欧盟反垄断专员玛格丽特?维斯塔格(Margrethe Vestager)表示，谷歌“拒绝给予其他公司竞争的机会”，并让消费者失去“真正的选择”。

“Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results and demoting those of competitors. What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules.”

“谷歌的比价购物服务战略不是通过令其产品优于竞争对手来吸引客户，而是滥用其市场主宰地位，在搜索结果中抬高自己的比价购物服务，降低竞争对手产品的排名。根据欧盟反垄断规则，谷歌的做法是非法的。”

The company has 90 days to make changes and must “refrain from any measure that has the same or an equivalent object or effect”, the commission said.

欧盟委员会表示，谷歌有90天时间做出整改，而且必须“避免采取具有同样或同等目标或效果的措施”。

Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell 1 per cent in early trading in New York.

谷歌母公司Alphabet的股价在纽约早盘下跌1%。

The Google probe is one of the most complex and politically charged ever undertaken by Brussels. Although the ruling orders Google to cease the anti-competitive practices, the precise changes required are expected to take months or even years to negotiate. Google can be hit with further non-compliance fines.

此项针对谷歌的调查是欧盟展开的最复杂也最充满政治意味的调查之一。尽管裁决命令谷歌停止反垄断实践，但预计谈判达成所需的具体整改措施将耗时数月甚至数年。谷歌可能被处以更多不合规罚款。

Google said it disagreed with the findings. “We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” it said.

谷歌表示不同意调查结果。该公司表示：“我们尊重但不同意今日宣布的结论。我们将详细审议欧盟委员会的裁决，我们将考虑上诉并期盼着继续陈述我们的理由。”