EU Court upholds Google's record fine of EUR 2.4 billion
Kyiv • UNN
The European Court of Justice has dismissed Google's appeal, upholding a €2.4 billion fine for anti-competitive promotion of Google Shopping. The court recognized Google's actions as discriminatory against competitors.
The European Court of Justice upheld a record fine of 2.4 billion euros imposed on Google for the anticompetitive promotion of its Shopping service, UNN reports citing Euronews.
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This is, as noted, one of two victories for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in her fight against large tech companies: judges also agreed with her in a €13 billion case involving low tax payments by Apple in Ireland.
In 2017, the European Commission accused Google of favoring the results of its own price comparison service Google Shopping in search results, limiting competitors.
Google and its parent company Alphabet were ordered to pay a fine, which at the time was the largest ever imposed by the European Commission under its strict antitrust powers.
Google failed to challenge this decision in the European Court of Justice, after which the company appealed to the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the EU.
"In light of the market and the specific circumstances of the case, Google's behavior was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of substantive competition," the judges said, rejecting the appeal of Google and its parent company Alphabet.
Google showed the search results of its price comparison service first, using attractive visual and textual information, while the results of competitors were located below in the form of ordinary links, the European Commission said.
The ruling confirms the advisory opinion of Julian Cockcott, one of the court's general counsels, who said in January that the fine should be upheld.
Google "used its dominant position in the general search market to favor its own price comparison service," the report said.
