It"s a great day for Google today, as it has successfully overturned a €1.49 billion ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine, that was imposed by the European Union (EU) back in 2019. The decision was announced by the EU"s General Court [PDF] today.
According to the European Commission, Google had engaged in anti-competitive practices by including "exclusivity clauses" in its contracts, that prevented websites from using services from Google"s competitors. These practices limited choice for advertisers and potentially led to higher prices for consumers. The case was initiated after Microsoft among other companies complained about Google"s practices to the EU, and the Commission started its investigation into Google"s practices from 2006 to 2016.
The General Court said that the Commission"s findings were mostly true. Although it discovered that the Commission had made procedural errors during its investigation, which ultimately led to the fines getting dismissed by the court. The court added that the Commission failed to adequately consider all the relevant circumstances when assessing the true impact of Google"s contractual agreements. It further added that there was insufficient evidence that Google"s practices really harmed consumers or helped the company maintain a monopoly in the ad market.
Google was happy with the court"s decision and also stated that it had already modified its contracts in 2016 to eliminate the disputed provision, even before the Commission"s ruling was made in 2019, in an email to Reuters. "We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine", the company added.
The European Commission has said that it will review the judgment and consider possible next steps, including options to appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union on legal grounds.
This victory comes shortly after Google faced a setback in a separate appeal regarding a €2.42 billion fine related to its shopping comparison service. Google has faced a total of over €8 billion in fines from the EU over various antitrust cases in recent years, over its ad, search, and marketplace businesses.