Court backs Google’s challenge to the EU’s $1.7 billion antitrust fine
A Google logo displays on a smartphone screen and the European flag on a computer screen.
Nikolas Kokovlis | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The European Union’s second-highest court on Wednesday said a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) fine imposed on Google by regulators should be annulled, siding with the U.S. tech giant after it challenged the ruling.
The case stems from 2019 when the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Google had abused its market dominance in relation to a product called AdSense for Search. This product allowed website owners to deliver ads into the search results on their own pages.
Google acts as an intermediary allowing advertisers to serve ads via search on third-party websites.
But the Commission alleged that Google abused its market dominance by imposing a number of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites, which ultimately prevented rivals from placing their search ads on these websites.
The Commission fined Google 1.49 billion euros at the time. Google appealed, sending the case to the EU’s General Court.
The EU’S General Court said Wednesday that it “upholds the majority of the Commission’s findings” but “annuls the decision by which the Commission imposed a fine of” nearly 1.5 billion euros.
The European Commission and Google were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
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