The EU fires a warning shot at Google and other Internet giants

Alphabet Inc.'s most successful product -- the Google search engine -- may now be its most problematic. On Tuesday, the European Commission's top antitrust regulator levied a $2.7-billion fine against Alphabet and Google for the way the search engine handles requests for information about products. Specifically, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google skewed its results to bury links to rival companies' comparison shopping sites while prominently featuring its own service, Google Shopping. Google responded that it's simply trying to give users what they want and denied "favoring ourselves, or any particular site or seller." It has a lot at stake: Google has integrated many different offerings into its search engine, including its mapping and travel services.