United Kingdom, Sept. 8 -- Google has been fined £2.5billion by the European Union for abusing its dominance in online advertising technology.

The European Commission has announced the company had breached competition law by favouring its own products for placing online ads, to the detriment of its rivals.

The regulator said the practice inflated costs for competitors and publishers, while reducing their revenues.

In a statement to the BBC, Google's global head of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said: "It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money.

"There's nothing anti-competitive in providing services for ad buyers and sell...