The European Commission had initially penalised Google for abusing its dominant position in the search market by promoting its own price comparison shopping service over smaller competitors.In 2021, a lower court upheld the Commission’s decision, leading Google to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
At that time, it was the biggest fine the Commission had imposed on a single company in an antitrust case, exceeding a EUR 1.06 billion sanction handed down against US chipmaker Intel in 2009.
What CJEU judges said in their ruling
The CJEU judges ruled that while EU law does not prohibit a dominant market position, it does forbid the abusive exploitation of such a position.
“In particular, the conduct of undertakings in a dominant position that has the effect of hindering competition on the merits and is thus likely to cause harm to individual undertakings and consumers is prohibited,” they said, as per news agency Reuters.
Meanwhile, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager cheered the decision against Google, praising the Google judgement as a big win for digital fairness.
“It [the decision] confirms that Google favoured its own comparison shopping service and actively limited choice for European users,” she said in a post on X.
This loss adds to Google’s growing list of EU antitrust fines, which have now reached a total of EUR 8.25 billion (approx. $9.09 billion) in the past decade. Google is currently awaiting judgments on appeals related to two other rulings involving its Android operating system and AdSense advertising service.
Furthermore, the company is also fighting other antitrust charges imposed on the company in the EU last year. These charges can force the tech giant to divest part of its profitable adtech business.