Google loses EU court challenge against £2billion antitrust ruling
Google loses EU court challenge against £2billion antitrust ruling after search engine giant was accused of favouring its own price-comparison shopping service over smaller European rivals
Google was sanctioned by EU’s competition chief in 2017, which it appealedEuropean Court of Justice’s General Court ruled it ‘largely dismisses’ the appealCase was first of three that has seen Google rack up 8.25 billion Euros in finesGoogle responded to today’s decision by saying it made changes in 2017 to comply with the European Commission´s decision
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Google has lost an EU court challenge to a £2billion anti-trust ruling after the search engine giant was accused of favouring its own price-comparison shopping service over smaller European rivals.
The European Court of Justice’s General Court ruled today that it ‘largely dismisses’ Google’s appeal of that antitrust penalty and is upholding the fine.
The shopping case was the first of a trio of decisions that have seen Google rack up a total of 8.25 billion euros in EU antitrust fines in the last decade.
The fine is a major win for EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager, who sanctioned the world’s most popular internet search engine in 2017 for giving itself the unfair advantage over European shopping rivals.
Vestager subsequently took on Amazon, Apple and Facebook, where investigations are still ongoing.
Google has lost an EU court challenge to a £2billion anti-trust ruling after the search engine giant was accused of favouring its own price-comparison shopping service over smaller European rivals
‘The General Court thus rules that, in reality, Google favours its own comparison shopping service over competing services, rather than a better result over another result,’ it said in a press release.
Google responded by saying it made changes in 2017 to comply with the European Commission´s decision.
‘Our approach has worked successfully for more than three years, generating billions of clicks for more than 700 comparison shopping services,’ a Google statement said.
‘This judgement relates to a very specific set of facts and while we will review it closely, we made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision,’ the company said in an email.
Google can appeal to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), Europe’s top court, on points of law, but did not say if it would appeal against the judgement.
The fine was part of an effort by European regulators to curb the online giant’s clout on the continent.
It was followed by two other blockbuster antitrust penalties that the commission slapped on Google, totalling 8.25 billion euros, which the company also is appealing.
The commission’s investigation found that Google unfairly directed visitors to its comparison shopping service, Google Shopping, to the detriment of its rivals.
EU regulators demanded Google change the way it provides search results in Europe.
