The European Commission is reportedly preparing a mammoth fine ($9 billion) for Alphabet's Google for violating EU antitrust rules, according to Reuters.
The EU competition watchdog accused Google in April 2015 of distorting search results to favour its own services over competing ones. The case had been identified since late 2010.
Not long ago, people familiar with the matter told Reuters they believed that after three failed settlement attempts over the previous six years, Google had no plans to settle these allegations unless the commission changed its stance.
The search engine company has been under investigation by the Commission since 2010, when it received complaints from Google's American and European competitors.
If found guilty of violating antitrust rules, it will face fines of up to 10% of its annual turnover, which in Google's case could be over 6 billion euros.
The largest fine for violating antitrust law issued to date was a €1.1 billion fine imposed on Intel in 2009.
In addition to the fine, Reuters believes the Commission will try to stop Google from using its alleged practices, but it is unclear what measures the company could adopt to level the playing field for rival companies.
Google agreed last month to pay 306 million euros in back taxes to Italy and Ireland in an effort to end a criminal investigation into whether the company evaded taxes on all of its revenue for more than a decade.
