The European Union on Friday imposed a €2.95 billion ($3.5 billion) fine on Google for violating competition rules by giving preferential treatment to its own digital advertising services. This marks the company’s fourth antitrust penalty in the bloc and signals a shift from earlier threats of a potential breakup. The European Commission the EU’s executive arm and chief antitrust regulator also directed Google to end its “self-preferencing practices” and implement measures to eliminate conflicts of interest across the advertising technology supply chain. Google’s Stand On USD 3.5 Billion Fine Google said the decision was “wrong” and that it would appeal. “It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money” Lee-Anne Mulholland the companys global head of regulatory affairs said in a statement. Us Federal Jury Order Against Google  In another case US federal jury has also recently ordered Google to pay $425.7 million for improperly snooping on peoples smartphones during a nearly decade-long period of intrusions. The verdict reached Wednesday in San Francisco federal court followed a more than two-week trial in a class-action case covering about 98 million smartphones operating in the United States between July 1 2016 through Sept 23 2024. That means the total damages awarded in the five-year-old case works out to about $4 per device. Google had denied that it was improperly tracking the online activity of people who thought they had shielded themselves with privacy controls. The company maintained its stance even though the eight-person jury concluded Google had been spying in violation of California privacy laws. “This decision misunderstands how our products work and we will appeal it” Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said Thursday. “Our privacy tools give people control over their data and when they turn off personalisation we honour that choice.” The lawyers who filed the case had argued Google had used the data they collected off smartphones without users permission to help sell ads tailored to users individual interests — a strategy that resulted in the company reaping billions in additional revenue. The lawyers framed those ad sales as illegal profiteering that merited damages of more than $30 billion. (With Inputs From Agencies)