Alphabet’s Google on Tuesday lost its fight against a $2.7 billion fine levied by EU antitrust regulators seven years ago, one of a trio of hefty fines meted out to the company for various anti-competitive practices.
The European Commission fined the world’s most popular internet search engine in 2017 for using its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over
smaller European rivals.
A lower tribunal had endorsed the EU competition enforcer’s decision in 2021, prompting Google to appeal to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union.
CJEU judges noted that EU law does not sanction the existence of a dominant position, but its abusive exploitation.
“In particular, the conduct of undertakings in a dominant position that has the effect of hindering competition on the merits and is thus likely to cause harm to individual
undertakings and consumers is prohibited,” they said.
Google has racked up 8.25 billion euros in EU antitrust fines in the last decade. It has challenged two rulings involving its Android mobile operating system and AdSense
advertising service, and is now waiting for the judgments.
It is also fighting EU antitrust charges issued last year that could force it to sell part of its lucrative adtech business after regulators accused it of favouring its own
advertising services.
A Google spokesman was quoted as saying that “We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision. Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”
Regulators are mounting pressure on Google’s parent Alphabet all over the world. Under the Digital Markets Act, Alphabet is under investigation for various practices. This is the case with other tech firms too.
Even in the US, Google is fighting an anti-trust case against the Department of Justice with regard to it advertising business.
With Reuters inputs
