Google suffers setback after EU legal opinion upholds record fine

Google suffered a legal setback Thursday at the European Court of Justice, whose advisor recommended upholding a record fine imposed on it for anti-competitive practices.

The US tech giant is seeking to overturn a €4.3 billion ($4.9 billion) fine imposed by the European Commission in 2018, later reduced to €4.1 billion.

However, the ECJ's Advocate General, Julienne Kocotte, said in a statement that "Google's legal arguments are ineffective."

While this recommendation is not binding, it carries significant weight and is often followed by EU judges in their rulings.

The Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, has accused Google of exploiting the popularity of its Android operating system to restrict competition.

It said Google pressured phone manufacturers using Android to pre-install its search engine and Google Chrome, closing the door to competitors.

The EU's second-highest court upheld these findings in 2022, slightly reducing the fine.

The fine is the largest ever imposed in EU history.

Google appealed to the EU's highest court, arguing that the Commission's case was invalid and that the penalty punished innovation.

The company also noted that the EU unfairly overlooks Apple's preference for its own services, such as the Safari browser, on iPhones.

The European Court of Justice will be guided by the recommendation in its decision, and the court has the final say on the matter.

The court, citing Kokott's opinion, stated that "Google occupied a dominant position in many Android markets and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure users used Google's search engine."

She added, "As a result, Google obtained data that, in turn, enabled it to improve its services. No equally capable virtual competitor would have found itself in such a situation."

As part of a broad campaign to curb the abuses of big tech companies, the European Union imposed fines on Google totaling €8.2 billion between 2017 and 2019 for antitrust violations.

This led to a series of protracted legal battles.

Since then, Brussels has resorted to a stronger legal weapon, known as the Digital Markets Act, to rein in tech giants.

Rather than regulators discovering blatant antitrust violations after years of investigations, the Digital Markets Act provides companies with a list of what they are and are not allowed to do online.