Google suffers blow: EU Court upholds €2.4 billion fine for anti-competitive practices

A major blow for Google following the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to maintain the fine of 2.4 billion euros against the company.

For context, this fine was originally imposed in 2017, and resulted in an investigation by the European Commission (EC) which determined that Google had abused its dominant position in the online search market to favour its own price comparison services.

Now, The CJEU, the EU’s highest court, has upheld the initial decision, arguing that Google effectively illegally took advantage of its dominance in the search market to rank its own product listings higher.thereby harming rival purchasing services.

This meant that users saw Google Shopping results first, while rival services appeared in the background, which naturally affected their traffic and therefore their revenue.

Google loses €2.4 billion EU antitrust case

It is important to clarify that it was the CJEU’s Advocate General, Juliane Kokott, who backed the European Commission’s decision, arguing what has been said above. Although the lawyer’s opinion is not binding, it is usually followed by the court in most cases, which suggests that the fine will be maintained.

Leaving this aside and as it could not be otherwise, Google is not satisfied and has indicated that it needs to review the Advocate General’s opinion before the court issues its final ruling.The company has defended its product comparison service, saying it has been running successfully for years and that it continues to invest in improving it.

In this case – the same has not happened with Apple – The European Commission can indeed take credit for this titanic effort to regulate the practices of large technology companies. and ensure fair competition in the market

Meet How we work in ComputerHoy.

Tags: Laws, European Union