Four billion euros in fines for Google
The European Court of Justice has upheld the €4.1 billion antitrust fine imposed on Google. According to the court, the company abused its market power in relation to Android.
Google has finally lost its long-running dispute with the European Commission. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has upheld a competition fine of 4.1 billion euros. This remains the highest antitrust fine ever imposed by the European Commission on a company.
According to the European Commission, Google used its market power to favour its own search engine over that of its competitors. The ECJ has now upheld the lower court’s ruling and dismissed the company’s appeal. The judgement is final.
Dispute over pre-installed apps
The proceedings centred on agreements between Google, smartphone manufacturers and mobile network suppliers. Anyone wishing to offer the Google Play Store on an Android device was required to pre-install other Google services at the same time. These included Google Search and the Chrome browser.
The European Commission takes the view that Google has thereby gained a decisive advantage over competing search engines and browsers. Many users do not bother to download additional apps if one that serves their purpose is already installed. This would leave other services at a significant disadvantage.
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Furthermore, the Commission criticised other contractual terms. For instance, manufacturers using Google services were in some cases not permitted to sell smartphones running alternative versions of Android. In addition, some companies received payments if they pre-installed Google Search exclusively on certain devices.
Google amended its contracts – too little, too late
The European Commission had already set the fine at 4.34 billion euros in 2018. Google contested the decision and took the case to court. The Court of Justice of the European Union largely upheld the allegations in 2022, but reduced the fine to 4.1 billion euros.
Google and its parent company, Alphabet, subsequently lodged an appeal with the Court of Justice of the European Union. The company argued that the bundling of individual services had been necessary to finance investment in the open-source Android system. Following the European Commission’s decision, the group had already amended its terms and conditions. Manufacturers can now also licence Google services individually without having to pre-install Chrome or Google Search at the same time. Whilst this was taken into account, it did not alter the fact that infringements had already been committed.
The decision is the latest in a series of antitrust proceedings against Google in Europe. In other cases, EU competition regulators have already imposed fines running into the billions on the company, such as in 2024 against the price comparison service. At that time, the fine amounted to 2.4 billion euros.
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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