EU court upholds EUR 2.4bn Google antitrust fine

Google found itself on the losing end of a significant European legal battle on Tuesday, as the EU's Court of Justice upheld a €2.4bn fine imposed on the company for antitrust violations.

The court supported a 2017 ruling that found Google abused its dominance in the search engine market by favouring its own shopping services over those of competitors.

It marked a critical moment in a series of actions led by EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager - a key figure in the union’s targeting of Google's market practices.

Vestager, whose tenure was nearing its end, intensified the case against Google shortly after taking office in 2014.

The shopping services fine was the first of three major penalties levied against Google, with total fines exceeding €8bn.

Google expressed disappointment with the ruling, with Bloomberg reporting that it said a 2017 proposal to address the EU's concerns had increased traffic to competing shopping services.

However, the judgement came after Google was fined an additional €4.3bn in 2018 for restrictive contract terms related to its Android operating system, and a further €1.49bn in 2019 for anticompetitive practices in its online advertising business.

Bloomberg said the EU's scrutiny of Google was likely to continue, particularly in the area of adtech, where regulators had hinted that a breakup of the company's business might be necessary to ensure fair competition.

The European Union's Digital Markets Act, implemented last year, was designed to prevent dominant tech companies from favouring their own services, in hopes of addressing longstanding concerns about market fairness and competition.

At 0645 EDT (1145 BST), shares in Google parent Alphabet were up 0.14% in premarket trading in New York, at $149.75.

They closed Monday’s session down 1.57% at $149.54.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.