The European Union will file an antitrust case against Google Inc. that could cost the U.S.-based internet giant up to $6 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday afternoon.
The report, citing “a person familiar with the matter,” said the case grows out of a five-year investigation and likely will become the biggest European antitrust case since Brussels’ case against Microsoft.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU antitrust chief, will tell her fellow EU commissioners of her decision Wednesday, the Journal reported.
Such a move would be “very bad news” for Google, Ioannis Lianos, a professor of global competition law at University College London, told the newspaper, saying that EU regulators are signaling that they “don’t want to settle case, they want to adopt an infringement decision,” that includes fines and injunctions.
Such penalties could reach $6 billion, the Journal reported.
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