Google Loses Appeal Against 2.4 Billion Euros Fine For Its Shopping Service
The European Commission argues that Google has given its own shopping service an unfair favor.
Google loses appeal of a 2.4 billion euro (US $ 2.8 billion) antitrust fine for allegedly thwarting smaller shopping search services, in the first of a trilogy of European Union court fights over cases that set the course for the EU campaign to curb Silicon Valley.
The US search giant violated competition rules and deserved the penalty imposed by the European Commission in 2017, the EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled on Wednesday.
While the regulator was largely vindicated in the ruling, the judges said regulators had been unable to prove that Google had damaged the general search market, dismissing the EU’s finding of infringement. That leaves the decision directed solely at the shopping search service.
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The commission’s sanction for Google, the largest at the time, was the first of a trio of decisions that form the centerpiece of EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s bid to curb the growing dominance of companies. big tech companies. She has fined the Alphabet Inc. unit more than 8.2 billion euros in total and is still investigating the company’s alleged dominance over digital advertising.
Wednesday’s ruling reinforces the EU’s crusade against the powers of tech giants that has encouraged other global antitrust regulators, including the United States. It can also help smaller companies pursue millions of dollars in damages claims in national courts in claims that Google harmed their fledgling businesses. The result could also influence Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook to rethink how hard they fight the EU in current investigations.
The court decision comes amid separate efforts by the EU to create new rules that will establish a straitjacket for powerful companies. Those rules are now in the final stages of negotiations and were written because regulators grew increasingly frustrated at the limits of antitrust investigations to unleash real changes in big tech behavior.
Along with the fine, Google was ordered in 2017 to make changes to the way it displays shopping search results that could help rivals get some of the valuable ad space on search pages. Smaller search services have complained that the EU never pushed Google to go far enough to help them attract enough visitors. EU officials argued that they can only create the conditions for companies to compete.
In September, the Alphabet Inc. unit went back to court to attack the second of three EU fines, a record € 4.3 billion fine directed at its Android mobile phone system, and an order that hit the market much harder. heart of Google’s ability to make money.
