This move may change the way the tech giant operates in the European Union. Antitrust charges have been anticipated, because the competition commissioner kept attending US meetings. This turn of events may force Google to reckon with accusations that it has unfairly privileged its own services over those of the rivals.

The competition commissioner has always been under pressure from a number of EU and US corporations to investigate Google’s activities on the territory of Europe. The matter is that Europe takes up to 90% of the search market in the region and is allegedly abusing this dominance by illegally promoting its own products and services. Microsoft and other tech giants argue that Google’s other offerings always appear higher in search results, and users don’t understand that it is just advertising.

Google faced a number of charges, including the problem of interoperability, which involves the capacity of programs and web pages of other companies to play nicely together. It is claimed that this capacity can be undermined and subverted in ways that the user can’t notice.

According to the industry observers, the powers of the European commission in this case are substantial, so the punishments may appear “catastrophic” for Google. Unlike the American Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice, the EC is able to impose fines up to tens of millions of dollars. For the example, the Brussels-based authority has already imposed a fine of €1.06bn on Intel 6 years ago and upheld the fine on appeal back in 2014.

In the meantime, Google has an option to negotiate with the European commission and bargain, but this might bring no results or even worsen the matter.