Google: The Court of Justice upholds fine of €4'100'000'000 [pdf]
The Court of Justice of the European Union has upheld a €4.1 billion fine imposed on Google for abusing its dominant market position by imposing illegal restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators to strengthen its search engine dominance.
Background
- The EU's Court of Justice (ECJ, the highest court) has definitively upheld the European Commission's €4.1 billion antitrust fine against Google, originally issued in 2018. This is one of the largest antitrust penalties in history.
- The fine was for illegally abusing the dominant market position of its Android mobile operating system. The Commission found that Google forced phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome, and paid them to exclusively carry Google services, in order to crush competition from rivals like Bing or DuckDuckGo.
- The Android case is a cornerstone of EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager's aggressive crackdown on Big Tech. The ECJ's ruling is final and cannot be appealed, marking a major legal victory for EU regulators.
- Google had already modified its Android licensing practices in 2019 (allowing users to choose their default search engine in Europe), but the fine remained contested until now.