ECJ: Google defends itself against penalty of billions of euros

Google has already faced several serious accusations in the area of competition law. As a rule, however, these have been well-founded. After all, the search engine giant has a hand in almost everything due to its omnipresence on the Internet. This applies not only to advertising, but also to price comparison via “Google Shopping”. Accordingly, the court of the European Union also confirmed a hefty fine of 2.42 billion euros. The tech giant, however, sees itself as intransigent and is now defending itself against the ruling. With an appeal to the European Court of Justice in person.

Google moves before the highest court

The focus of the legal dispute is “Google Shopping.” This service offers like competitors a la “www.idealo.de” or also “www.billiger.de” the possibility of always being able to find the best price. Since the said competition was treated unfavorably, the company was imposed a penalty payment of 2.42 billion euros. The Court of the European Union confirmed this penalty only in November last year. Of course, Google was and is anything but pleased about this. That’s why the tech giant is now taking the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) without further ado. Europe’s highest court is now to decide whether this penalty is legal or not.

Assumed violation of competition law

But how exactly did such a horrendous fine come about in the first place? According to the ruling of the Court of the European Union, there is no question that Google’s competitors are clearly disadvantaged by Google Shopping. This is by no means an unintended side effect, but clearly intentional. Accordingly, the court fully supported the assessment and fine decision of the EU Commission. Accordingly, anyone searching for products on Google will always come across the price comparison of “Google Shopping” first and foremost. The competition in the form of idealo and Co. should also have been placed worse in the same course.

Google as new bogeyman?

With the judgment Google sees itself again in the victim role. In view of the meanwhile imposed punishments against the company, one can understand this however also a little. After all, the fines now amount to almost eight billion euros. This should not be the end by a long shot. We are curious to see what Google can achieve before the ECJ.