The European Commission has hit search giant Google with a third fine, related to abuse of its AdSense advertising service, and told the company to fork out €1.49 billion (A$2.38 billion) for breaching EU anti-trust rules.

The European Union has almost completed a third inquiry into Google's parent company Alphabet — this time into the company's AdSense advertising business — according to the bloc's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager.

The Federal Government has an excellent chance to do itself a favour and also gain some good karma by taking onboard a suggestion by the Treasury to tax big multinational technology companies based on their revenue. It would help the budget bottom line and represent some actual policy for a change.