The European Union’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager has filed a complaint against Google that alleged the company violated anti-trust laws. The complaint stated that the company’s promotion of its own shopping links amounted to an abuse of its search dominance. (Google accounts for 90 percent of web searches in the EU.) The company has 10 weeks to respond.

The complaint follows a years-long investigation into Google’s practices. Since 2010, a number of companies, including Microsoft, Tripadvisor, and Streetmap, have leveled anti-trust allegations.

Google rejected the claim that it had acted inappropriately. “While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways,” wrote its search chief Amit Singhal. “[A]llegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark.”

The legal process could carry on for years and ultimately lead to billions of euros in fines.

Isn’t the point of proviing a useful free service to leverage it into exposure for your other profitable services?