EU antitrust regulators hit Google with record 2.42 billion euro fine

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators slapped a record 2.42-billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine on Alphabet unit Google on Tuesday by illegally favouring its shopping service.

The European Commission said the world's most popular internet search engine has 90 days to end its anti-competitive practice or face penalty payments up to 5 percent of Alphabet's average daily worldwide turnover.

The action came after a seven-year long investigation prompted by scores of complaints from rivals such as U.S. consumer review website Yelp, TripAdvisor, UK price comparison site Foundem, News Corp and lobbying group FairSearch.

This is the biggest fine for a single company in an EU antitrust case, exceeding a 1.06-billion-euro sanction handed down to U.S. chipmaker Intel in 2009.

($1 = 0.8890 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)