美国有线新闻 CNN 两年内第三张天价罚单 谷歌再次因不当竞争被欧盟处罚（在线收听）

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: For the third time in two years, the European Union is ordering Google to pay more than $1 billion for breaking EU rules. That's the first story we're explaining today on CNN 10. I'm Carl Azuz.

The first time had to do with shopping. In 2017, the EU accused Google of using its own search engine to steer shoppers to its own shopping platform, instead of those of its competitors.

ISA SOARES: Search for almost anything you could buy online and right at the top Google will first offer you a box with a selection of that product, say cheese. And if you go further and click on it, Google directs you to its own Google shopping page. The European Commission argues that by promoting its own business and banishing other such websites to around the fourth page of search results, what Google is doing is really denying anyone else a chance to compete, and denying consumers with what it calls a genuine choice.

AZUZ: The EU said that was unfair and fined the company $2.7 billion, a record at the time. Google said it disagreed, and that it tried to show ads in ways that helped buyers and sellers. But then another fine came last summer. The EU ordered Google to pay $5 billion, a new record amount, for requiring and paying smart phone makers to install Google applications on phones before they were sold, and for preventing makers from selling phones that ran on alternative versions of Android, Google's operating system. The EU said Google was breaking the law. Google disagreed, saying Android had created more choices for everyone, not less.

The technology company has not paid these fines yet. It's appealing them through the court system. Now though, it has a third one to address, the one Google was ordered to pay Wednesday. It's worth $1.7 billion. Again, it's about hindering competition. The European Union says Google prevented its competitors from advertising on certain websites. This went on for 10 years between 2006 and 2016. And after European lawyers objected to it in 2016, Google stopped doing it. Since then, Google says its made a quote "wide range of changes in order to address the Commissions concerns." The company says more changes are ahead based on what it calls feedback from Europe. And as far as the latest fine goes, Google says it respectfully disagrees with it.

But with American companies like Google, Apple and Facebook being so dominant around the world, Europe's been closely watching them, and sometimes actively confronting them over competition, privacy and tax issues. So all of this is only part of the tension between U.S. internet and tech companies and international governments.