BRUSSELS, April 15 (RAPSI) – The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it sent a statement of objections to Google alleging the company has abused its dominant position in the markets for general Internet search services in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Google could be fined over $6 billion, which is about 10 percent of Google’s most recent annual revenue, said Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of competition policy.

“In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules. Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe,” the EU commissioner said.

TASS agency earlier reported citing a source in the European institutions that the European Commission was ready to bring charges against Google and that the penalty could be up to $7 billion. The European official said the company would have to clean up its operation by the end of 2015 or pay the fine.

Comparison shopping products allow consumers to search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendors. The Commission’s preliminary conclusion is that Google gives systematic favorable treatment to its comparison shopping product in its general search results pages, for example, by showing Google Shopping more prominently on the screen.

The European Commission opened its initial investigation into Google, which accounts for about 90 percent of the EU search market, in 2010. Google has made three attempts to settle concerns, none of which satisfied the European regulator. The European Commission wants Google to divide its search and commercial services.