Google loses fight over record $4.7 billion EU antitrust fine
“Hong Kong, China – March 19, 2012: Close-up of Samsung Galaxy S II Android screen with social media applications such as Google Plus, Facebook, Play Store and Google Search.”
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Europe’s top court approved on Thursday Googlewas fined approximately 4.1 billion euros ($4.67 billion) for anti-competitive practices.
In 2018, the European Commission imposed a record fine on Google for abusing Android’s mobile dominance to gain an unfair advantage for its own applications through pre-installation agreements with smartphone manufacturers.
Google is appealing the decision through the EU court system. However, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Europe’s highest court, rejected Google’s objection.
“By rejecting Google and Alphabet’s appeal against the General Court decision, the Court of Justice approved the revised penalty imposed by the General Court for their anti-competitive practices regarding the Android operating system,” the ECJ said in a press release. he said.
CNBC has reached out to Google for comment.
In 2022, an EU lower court reduced the fine from a previous 4.34 billion euros to the current 4.1 billion euros.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has been pursuing Google for more than a decade after the first case was filed against the company in 2015.
Google is in the Commission’s crosshairs for various alleged antitrust practices. Last year, the Commission fined Google 2.95 billion euros for anti-competitive practices in its advertising technology business.
While antitrust is still the Commission’s focus, the regulator is now looking at the practices of big tech firms under the wide-ranging Digital Markets Act. Apple And Meta is also under review.
