Google wins appeal against €1.5bn EU competition fine

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Google has won an appeal against a €1.5bn competition fine from the European Commission in a victory for the Big Tech group as it comes under growing scrutiny from Brussels regulators.

The EU’s General Court said on Wednesday that while it accepted “most of the commission’s assessments” that the company had used its dominant position to block rival online advertisers, it annulled the hefty fine levied against Google in the case.

When launching the action against Google in 2019, Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition chief, said that the search giant had imposed anti-competitive restrictions on third-party websites for a decade between 2006 and 2016. She justified the €1.5bn fine by arguing that it reflected the “serious and sustained nature” of the infringement.

However, the Luxembourg-based General Court found 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 clauses that it had found to be unfair”.

The commission, which is likely to appeal, said it took “note” of the judgment and “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps”.

Google said: “This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ 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 has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely.”

The case is one of three the EU has fought in court against Google over the past few years, which have amounted to fines of roughly €8.25bn. Critics have said that the market for online advertising has already been cornered by the tech giant and that antitrust action has been too slow and ineffective.

Wednesday’s loss comes after the commission scored a big win 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 ahead of competitors. In that case, the EU’s top court upheld a €2.4bn fine against Google.

Brussels still has an open case against Google related to 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 act on the threat and to impose further fines on Google, said people with direct knowledge of the ongoing case.

Vestager, who is stepping down from her role as antitrust enforcer in the coming weeks, has accused tech giants of not playing by the EU’s rules.

She recently told the Financial Times: “I’ve had not one, not two, not three but I am on my fourth Google case. It is thought-provoking that those who have made it in the marketplace still feel that they should not compete on the merits.”