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Google has won its appeal against a €1.5 billion competition fine imposed by the European Commission, a victory for the tech giant that has come under increasing scrutiny from regulators in Brussels.
The EU's General Court said on Wednesday that while it accepted “most of the Commission's assessments” that the company had abused its dominant position to block rival online advertisers, it quashed the hefty fine imposed on Google in the case.
When the bloc’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, launched the action against Google in 2019, she said the search giant had imposed anti-competitive restrictions on third-party websites for a decade between 2006 and 2016. She justified the €1.5 billion fine by arguing that it reflected the “serious and persistent nature” of the infringement.
However, the Court in Luxembourg ruled that the Commission, the EU's executive arm, had failed “to take into account all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual terms which it had found to be unfair.”
The commission, which is likely to appeal, said it had “taken note” of the verdict and “will carefully study the verdict and consider possible next steps.”
Google said: “This case concerns a very limited subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publisher websites. We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the commission's decision. We are pleased that the court acknowledged errors in the original decision and overturned the fine. We will continue to review the full decision closely.”
The case is one of three the EU has taken to court against Google in recent years, resulting in fines of around €8.25 billion. Critics have said the tech giant already controls the online advertising market and that antitrust action has been too slow and ineffective.
Wednesday's loss comes after the commission secured a major victory against Google in a separate case after the European Court of Justice said the search giant had abused its market power by ranking its shopping services above competitors. In that case, the EU's top court upheld a €2.4 billion fine against Google.
Brussels still has a case against Google pending over its dominance in the ad tech market. Last year, Brussels threatened to break up the company as the only viable solution to address competition concerns. The EU is still deciding whether to take action against the threat and impose further fines on Google, according to people with direct knowledge of the ongoing case.
Vestager, who is stepping down as competition watchdog in the coming weeks, has accused tech giants of failing to comply with EU rules.
She recently told the Financial Times: “I've had not one, not two, not three, but I'm on my fourth Google case. It's mind-boggling that those who have made it in the market still feel they shouldn't compete on the merits.”
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