The European Union’s highest court on Thursday upheld the bloc’s record €4.1 billion antitrust fine against Google over anti-competitive practices related to its Android operating system.
The Court of Justice of the European Union rejected the U.S. technology giant’s second appeal against the penalty imposed by the European Commission in 2018, which remains the largest antitrust fine in EU history.
In a statement, the court said, “The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet and thereby upholds the fine imposed on them.” Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was also held jointly liable for part of the penalty.
The European Commission, the antitrust regulator for the 27-member bloc, accused Google of abusing the dominance of its Android operating system to restrict competition. It argued that Google required smartphone manufacturers using Android to pre-install its search engine and Chrome browser, effectively shutting out competitors, and imposed a €4.3 billion fine on the company.
The decision was upheld in 2022 by the EU’s General Court, the bloc’s second-highest court. However, the Luxembourg-based court slightly reduced the fine to €4.1 billion, which still remained the largest antitrust penalty in EU history.
Google appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union, arguing that the case was unfounded and that the penalty punished innovation. The company had also claimed that the EU had treated it unfairly by overlooking similar practices by Apple, which gives preference to its own services, such as Safari, on iPhones. Google further argued that Android users were never forced to use its products and that downloading competing apps was only “one tap away.”
However, the EU’s highest court ruled that the General Court “did not err in law when it assessed the anti-competitive effects of the pre-installation conditions contained in Google’s Android agreements.” Rejecting all of Google’s remaining legal arguments, the court also ordered the company to pay the European Commission’s legal costs.
Responding to the ruling, a Google spokesperson said the court had “overlooked the significant investments we have made to keep Android open, interoperable and free.”
