The European Union on Wednesday fined Google €1.49 billion (Rs 11,556 crore approximately) for misusing its position in online advertising, reported AP.

EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the tech major had abused its position by forcing customers of its AdSense business to sign contracts that stated they would not accept advertising from rival search engines. “The misconduct lasted over 10 years and denied other companies the possibility to compete on the merits and to innovate,” Vestager said at a press conference in Brussels.

According to AdSense’s policy, which was introduced in 2006, companies like retailers and newspapers place a Google search box on their website. When visitors used the search box, Google showed them advertisements and split the commission with the website’s owners, reported The Verge.

But, Google also made customers sign contracts that forbid them from including rival search engines on their sites. In 2009, Google allowed the inclusion of rival search engines as long as Google’s was more prominent. But in 2016, it removed these terms altogether.

With this, the EU has fined the company three times in the last three years. In 2018, Google was fined €4.3 billion for abusing its market dominance in mobile, and in 2017, it was fined €2.4 billion for manipulating shopping search results. With the new penalty, Google’s total bill now stands at €8.2 billion (Rs 63,967 crore approximately).