Google loses EU court fight over $4.7B Android antitrust fine
The European General Court largely upheld the European Commission's 2018 antitrust ruling against Google, maintaining a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) fine for abusing its dominant market position by imposing illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers to boost its search engine dominance.
Background
- The EU's General Court upheld a €4.34 billion ($4.7B) fine against Google, originally levied in 2018. This is one of the largest antitrust penalties in history.
- The case centers on Google's Android mobile operating system. The EU found that Google abused its market dominance by forcing phone makers (like Samsung and Xiaomi) to pre-install Google Search and Chrome, and paying them to exclusively use Google's search — all to block competition (e.g., rival search engines).
- This is a separate case from Google's other EU antitrust battles: one over its shopping service (€2.4B fine, also upheld) and one over ad tech (AdSense, €1.5B fine). Google has faced over €8B in total EU antitrust fines over the past decade.
- The ruling is a major victory for EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, whose crackdown on Big Tech has had mixed results in court. Google can still appeal to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice — but the legal precedent stands.