Google loses to appeal against EU antitrust fine worth $ 2.8 Billion

Antitrust experts say Google could also face defeat in appeals against two other decisions related to its Android mobile operating system and AdSense advertising service, because of strong EU arguments.

The Alphabet unit of the giant tech company Google has received a major setback from the European Union court. Google on Wednesday lost its right to appeal a 2.42 billion Euro ($2.8 billion) antitrust decision. It’s a major victory for Europe’s competition chief as the first of three court decisions at the center of the European Union to control a big tech company.

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined the world’s most popular Internet search engine about 2.42 billion Euros in 2017. The commission said that Google misused its powers to promote its shopping service more in the results of the search. This is the biggest fine ever imposed on a company for manipulating the market.

purchase was the first of three decisions that the European Union has fined Google about 8.25 billion euros ($9.5 billion) over the past decade. In fact, the investigation revealed that Google had blocked its rivals by using its dominance in the fields of Android smartphones, online ads, and online shopping. After this, the action of the fine was taken.

Antitrust experts say that the company may also face defeat in appeals against the other two decisions related to its Android mobile operating system and AdSense advertising service because The European Union’s arguments are strong in this.

The court’s support for the commission in its latest ruling could strengthen Margrethe Vestager’s hand in investigations into Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. The Court noted that while the General Court largely overruled Google’s action against the Commission’s decision, the investigation found that Google abused its powers by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services. Is.

The court observed that the Commission rightfully found during its investigation that Google’s conduct harmed the way competition was conducted and rejected the company’s argument that the presence of the merchant platform reflects that the competition was strong. The court upheld the commission’s fine, citing the serious nature of the violation, and held that “the conduct in question was deliberately pursued and not negligent”.

Google said it will review the decision, which has already complied with the commission’s order to ensure equal opportunities for rivals. Google, however, did not say whether it would appeal to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), Europe’s top court. Welcoming the decision, the commission said that this decision will provide legal clarity to the market.

The EU executive said in a statement, “The Commission will continue to use all the tools at its disposal to highlight the role of large digital platforms on which businesses and users depend, respectively, in providing access to digital services to end-users”.