“Hong Kong, China – March 19, 2012: Close-up of Samsung Galaxy S II Android screen with social media applications Google Plus, Facebook, Play Store and Google Search.”
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Thursday’s European Supreme Court ruling upheld googlewas fined approximately 4.1 billion euros ($4.67 billion) for alleged anti-competitive conduct.
In 2018, the European Commission handed Google a record fine for exploiting Android’s mobile dominance to give its apps an unfair advantage through pre-installation deals with smartphone manufacturers.
Google is appealing the ruling through the EU court system. However, Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), rejected Google’s appeal. Google has no further right to appeal.
“The Court of Justice dismissed the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against the General Court’s judgment and confirmed the fines imposed on Google and Alphabet for anti-competitive conduct related to the Android operating system, as amended by the General Court,” the ECJ said in a press release.
Shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet fell about 1% in premarket trading.
In 2022, the EU lower court reduced the fine from the previous 4.34 billion euros to the current 4.1 billion euros.
Google claimed that its Android operating system offers choice to users and supports developers and businesses across Europe.
A Google spokesperson told CNBC: “Android provides more choice for everyone and supports thousands of businesses. This ruling does not recognize the significant investments we have made to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free.”
“In any case, we have amended our agreement to comply with our original 2018 decision and remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners, and developers.”
Google has long tried to address the European Commission’s concerns, including by allowing Android users to switch between search engines and browsers to avoid being locked into its apps.
EU crackdown on big tech
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has been pursuing Google for more than a decade, having first started legal proceedings against Google in 2015.
Google has been in the commission’s crosshairs over several alleged antitrust practices. Last year, the European Commission fined Google 2.95 billion euros for anticompetitive conduct in its advertising technology business.
While antitrust law remains a focus for the European Commission, regulators are now investigating the practices of large technology companies under broader digital markets and digital services laws. apple and meta are also under surveillance.
“This decision itself is particularly important insofar as it marks the end of the European Commission’s ‘first stage’ battle with big tech companies, the so-called fight to use competition law powers to counter actions by big tech companies with a view to inhibiting competition in the EU market,” Alex Hafner, a partner at Floodgate, told CNBC.
“More recently, the European Commission’s focus has shifted to the legislative tools at its disposal, in particular the Digital Services Act to regulate Big Tech, so this is likely to be the focus of future regulation.”
Europe’s treatment of U.S. technology companies has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials. President Trump last month threatened to impose “100% tariffs” on products from countries that impose a digital services tax on U.S. companies. European countries such as France and Spain impose digital services taxes.
US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder told CNBC in March that Europe cannot “over-regulate” and impose “huge fines” on companies if it wants to participate in the AI economy.
