Google loses appeal against €4.1 billion fine
The EU’s highest court has dismissed an appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet against a fine of €4.1 billion imposed by the European Commission in 2018.
The commission found that Google had abused its dominant position by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers of mobile devices running its Android system and on mobile-network operators.
The EU body found that Google had required that its search engine and Chrome browser be promoted on mobile devices running Android, particularly through pre-installation agreements and licensing conditions for certain apps.
Google challenged the decision before the EU’s lower General Court, which lowered the fine to €4.1 billion after annulling one of the commission’s three findings – linked to revenue-sharing arrangements – against the tech giant.
Economic context
The company then appealed to the Court of Justice (CJEU), which has now dismissed the appeal and confirmed the fine set by the General Court.
The judges found that the lower court did not err in law when assessing the anti-competitive effects of the pre-installation conditions laid down by the Android agreements.
“The General Court was entitled to take account of the relevant economic context in its entirety, including the revenue-share agreements, without it being necessary systematically to carry out any counterfactual analysis in order to establish an infringement of the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position,” the court stated.
Single infringement
The CJEU also held that the lower court did not err in law by confirming the commission’s assessment of the pre-installation conditions laid down by the Android agreements.
It added that the lower court was also correct to hold that there was still a single and continuous infringement, despite the annulment of one element of the commission’s decision.
The higher court also backed the process by which the General Court set the amount of the fine.