Google is facing a record antitrust fine from the European Union related to the search giant's shopping search service, with an official announcement to be expected by Tuesday.

The fine for Alphabet's Google is expected to top a previous $1.2 billion record.

EU's probe started seven years ago fueled by complaints from small shopping websites as well as bigger names, including News Corp., Axel Springer SE and Microsoft.

The EU accuses Google of unfairly steering traffic to shopping sites that pay for top placement on its search results pages and don't give other comparison sites an equal chance. The EU points to the panel of sponsored search results that now appears above regular results for a Google search centered on a product.

The EU says consumers will benefit if Google stops promoting its own shopping service.

Google said it was continuing to engage with the European Commission and believes "strongly that our innovations in online shopping have been good for shoppers, retailers and competition."