12:48 PM EDT, 09/05/2025 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with additional details in the third paragraph and statement from European Commission's Teresa Ribera in the fourth and fifth paragraphs.)

Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google ( GOOG ) has been fined 2.95 billion euros ($3.5 billion) by the European Commission for violating "EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry."

The Commission said Friday that the company's practices harmed rival ad tech companies, advertisers, and publishers. Google ( GOOG ) has been ordered to stop these practices and fix the conflicts of interest within its advertising business. The company has 60 days to explain how it plans to comply, the European Union's executive arm said.

The Commission said its investigation showed that Google ( GOOG ) gave its own ad exchange, AdX, an unfair advantage by letting it know in advance the highest bids from rivals, helping AdX win auctions. Google ( GOOG ) also made its ad buying tools favor AdX by mostly placing bids there, while avoiding other competing exchanges, the Commission added.

Teresa Ribera, the Commission's executive vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, said that due to Google's ( GOOG ) illegal practices, advertisers had to pay more for marketing, costs that were likely passed on to European consumers through higher prices for goods and services. At the same time, publishers earned less revenue, which may have resulted in lower-quality content or higher subscription fees, she added.

"Google's ( GOOG ) abusive behavior therefore had a negative impact on all European citizens in their day-to-day use of the web," Ribera said in a statement.

Google's ( GOOG ) Global Head of Regulatory Affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland told MT Newswires the company will appeal the decision, saying the Commission is imposing "an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money."

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