EU Court Upholds Record €2.4 Billion Fine on Google

The European Union's top court ruled today in favor of the European Commission, confirming a €2.4 billion antitrust fine against Google for the anti-competitive promotion of its Shopping service.

This decision is one of two major victories today for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in her broader battle against large tech companies.

Alongside the Google ruling, EU judges also backed the Commission in a separate €13 billion case related to Apple's tax arrangements in Ireland.

In 2017, the European Commission accused Google of using its dominant position in the search engine market to favor its own price-comparison service, Google Shopping, in search results.

This behavior was deemed to harm competitors and violate EU competition rules.

Google, alongside its parent company Alphabet, was ordered to pay a fine that, at the time, represented the largest penalty ever imposed under the Commission’s antitrust powers.

The tech giant unsuccessfully attempted to challenge this decision before the EU's General Court and later appealed to the European Court of Justice.

Today, the Court dismissed the appeal, stating that “in the light of the characteristics of the market and the specific circumstances of the case, Google’s conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of competition on the merits.”

The European Commission argued that Google placed its own Shopping service at the top of search results, highlighting it with visual and textual enhancements, while competitors’ results were listed lower, only as basic links.

A Google spokesperson expressed disappointment, telling Euronews: “This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts. 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.”

The ruling follows a January advisory opinion by Advocate-General Juliane Kokott, who recommended that the fine be upheld. Kokott had argued that Google leveraged its dominant position in general search services to give undue advantage to its own comparison shopping platform.

This defeat for Google is a notable win for Margrethe Vestager as she prepares to conclude her tenure as the EU competition commissioner later this year.

Agustín Reyna, Director General of the consumer advocacy group BEUC, welcomed the Court’s decision, calling it “crucially important for Europe’s consumers.” Reyna added, “The Court has confirmed that Google cannot unfairly deny European consumers access to full and unbiased online information about where to get the best deals.”