The European Union has formally accused Google of illegal, monopolistic practices, stating that the American company abused its position as market leader by prioritizing its own services in search results and diverting traffic away from its competitors. The company could be fined up to 10 percent of its yearly earnings or as much as $6 billion. The EU also announced today that it was launching a further investigation into the Android operating system which could result in additional fines.

"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," said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. "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 is accusing Google of a number of unfair practices, as outlined in in its statement of objections. These include prominently displaying its shopping service in search results "irrespective of its merits," and lowering the search rank of rival services. The EU notes that this conduct began in 2008, and that Google's first comparison shopping service, Froogle, was not given this favorable treatment and subsequently "performed poorly."

In a press conference, Vestager presented the charges as not a case of the EU attacking the US. She noted that one in four of the complainants were themselves American companies, and praised Google for the utility of its services. "We do not wish to interfere with screen design … or with how the algorithm works," said Vestager. "Rather, what we would like to see is that consumers are certain to see the best comparison shopping results."

google's fines could be the biggest since Microsoft was ordered to pay $1.7 billion