Google could be hit with a record fine amounting to $3.4 billion from the European Commission within the coming weeks, insiders have revealed to the press. European Commission officials in Brussels are said to be putting the finishing touches to a ruling based on a seven-year anti-trust investigation.

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Once the ruling is officially announced, the European Commission will be breaking its previous fine record of $1.5 billion levied to semiconductor manufacturer Intel.

Sources close to the situation claim that European Commission officials are planning to release the ruling before the summer break. There are also strong indications that the commission might be making their move as early as next month.

There are rumors that the maximum possible fine could be around $7.46 billion, which would represent around a tenth of Google's total annual sales.

The ruling, once imposed, will serve as a watershed moment in the ongoing competition battle between Silicon Valley tech giants and the European Commission. Google has already been charged with illegal promotion of its price comparison service projected in the company's general search results. The search giant is also accused of relegating smaller rivals to lower brackets of its search results, which in turn could seriously affect the traffic received by such rivals.

The case against Google raised more alarms when a new investigation was launched to get to the bottom of the allegations regarding Google's monopoly abuse on its Android smartphone platform.

According to Bloomberg, European authorities are planning to ban Google from manipulating the search results it provides on its platform, especially the ones that favor the search giant and harm its rivals. Google has resisted calls to change its search result algorithms and instead presented alternatives such as a redesigned presentation of its search results.

TagsGoogle, Google update, Google News, Google fine, Google European Commission, European Commission, Google EU case, Google fines, Google EU fine