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Long-running Google debacle ends with EU Court confirming €2.42 billion fine

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The EU’s General Court upheld the Commission decision to fine Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominant market position as a search service by favouring its own comparison shopping service (Google Shopping) over competitors.

The original decision dates from June 2017, at the time Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives. That's a good thing. But Google's strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.

“What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

While the decision will be widely welcomed but Markus Ferber MEP (EPP, DE) EPP spokesman on economic affairs, said: “The case still highlights some of the shortcomings of EU competition law. Since the case started in 2014, many of Google’s competitors have vanished from the market. Going forward, we need a legal basis that is watertight and allows for much swifter action to fight the abuses by ‘Big Tech’", said Ferber.

Ramon Tremosa (now former) MEP and the current reporter on the Digital Markets Act Andreas Schwab MEP (EPP, DE) are seen here seated by the competition commissioner before Vestager, Joaquin Alumnia in 2013, to discuss this issue.

Sven Giegold MEP (Green, DE) also welcomed the decision of the court but tweeted: “This judgment is an important success against Google's distortion of competition in online shopping at the expense of smaller retailers! But the fine will hardly hurt Google: We can only achieve fair competition in the digital economy through consistent platform regulation!”

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