The European Court of Justice on Wednesday annulled a fine of 1.5 billion euros (around 1.4 billion francs) imposed by Brussels in 2019 against Google for abuse of a dominant position in online advertising.
The EU General Court, which is ruling at first instance, announced that it “annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety”, considering that the European executive “made errors” in its assessment. The European Commission will have the possibility of appealing this decision.
The case concerns the advertising network Google AdSense. In March 2019, the Commission decided to fine the technology group €1.5 billion, accused of having imposed restrictive clauses in contracts with websites. The aim, according to Brussels, was to prevent Google AdSense competitors from placing their own ads there.
>> Read also: Google fined 1.49 billion euros in Europe
The Mountain View firm had decided to file a legal appeal and won its case on Wednesday. In its ruling, the Luxembourg-based court “confirmed most of the Commission’s assessments”, but annulled the fine “on the grounds in particular that it failed to take into account all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses that it had described as abusive”.
According to the Commission, the infringement was observed over a period of ten years between 2006 and 2016, the year in which it opened its investigation following an initial customer complaint dating back to 2010. As early as September 2016, Google had removed certain clauses from its contracts in order to comply.
2.4 billion in another case
This first instance judgment comes just eight days after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) definitively confirmed another fine against Google, of 2.4 billion euros, for anti-competitive practices on the price comparison market, after seven years of legal battle.
The EU’s highest court has ruled that Google had for years made competitors to its Google Shopping service virtually invisible to consumers.
In total, the Californian giant was fined more than 8 billion euros for various breaches of competition law.
Also in the crosshairs of the United States
In addition to its price comparison and advertising network, Google has been found in breach in Europe over its Android operating system for mobile phones. It was fined a record €4.34 billion in July 2018.
>> Also read: Google fails to overturn record fine in EU court
The fine was reduced to €4.1 billion in September 2022. It remains the highest ever imposed by the European Commission, the EU’s competition watchdog. Google has also appealed the penalty to the CJEU.
The group is also in the crosshairs of regulatory authorities in the United States. Since Monday, it has been facing its second major trial in less than a year against the American government, which accuses it of stifling competition in online advertising.
>> Also read: Google sued in the United States for monopoly in digital advertising
ats/jfe
