EU ruling: 2.4 billion euros fine for Google

The EU Commission had already imposed a fine on the search engine giant around four years ago. The background to this was violations of competition law. Google had sued against the penalty at the time – without success, as the 2.4 billion euro fine has now been confirmed by the EU court.

Penalty for Google in the billions

The background to the lawsuit was said to be anti-competitive practices at Google’s price comparison service, where Google favored its own comparison over competing services. The EU court has upheld a competition fine of 2.42 billion euros imposed by the Commission on Google, as the judges in Luxembourg announced last week. However, Google can now still appeal to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The company’s practice violated EU antitrust law by exploiting its “dominant position as a search engine operator” to place the results of its own price comparison service at the top of the display, the responsible EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in 2017. Comparable competitor services were downgraded as a result.

These practices have been applied by Google in 13 European countries, including Germany. Google itself called the decision “legally, factually and economically” wrong.

Penalties against Google are adding up

Whether the group will appeal the ruling remains to be seen. It is only one of now three EU competition fines against Google, which now total more than eight billion euros.

For example, the record fine of 4.34 billion euros was due in 2018 because of the competition situation in the world’s most widely used smartphone operating system (Android). Just eight months later, a further EUR 1.49 billion was added because Google had, in the view of the EU Commission, improperly hindered other providers in search engine advertising in the “AdSense for Search” service. Google is also taking legal action against these two penalties.

For the European consumer protection organization Beuc, the ruling could represent a turning point for consumer freedom of choice on the Internet. It said Google had prevented consumers from accessing potentially cheaper offers by displaying its own results with priority, effectively sidelining competitors. The EU Commission’s decision was an important first step.