Google losing challenge of European antitrust fine
Google has lost a case about the largest fine ever imposed by a competition authority in Europe. The European General Court largely confirmed the European Commission’s decision to fine Google for unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android devices and mobile networks to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine.
However, in its ruling, the court lowered the fine slightly from Euro 4.3 billion to Euro 4.125 billion.
Various complaints had been submitted to the Commission regarding some of Google’s business practices in the mobile internet. In 2018, the Commission fined Google for having abused its dominant position by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers of mobile devices and on mobile network operators, in some cases since 1 January 2011.
Last year Alphabet lost an appeal against an antitrust fine of Euro 2.4 billion, imposed by the Commission in 2017 for having given an unfair advantage to its own offerings on its own search engine for comparison-shopping.
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