The Europe Union’s General Court has ruled that the European Commission was right in fining Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) $2.8 billion U.S. for an antirust breach.
The court ruling comes after the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said in 2017 that Google had favored its own comparison shopping services and fined the company $2.42 billion euros ($2.8 billion U.S.) for breaching antitrust rules.
Alphabet-unit Google contested the claims using the EU’s second-highest court. However, the court upheld the fine and the amount levied against Google. The latest legal verdict can be appealed and taken to the EU’s highest court.
This is not the first time that Europe’s General Court has ruled on an antirust case brought by the European Commission and directed at a tech giant.
The chamber ruled in July 2020 that the commission had failed to prove that the Irish government had given a tax advantage to Apple — this was after the Brussels-based institution ordered the Republic of Ireland to recoup 13 billion euros from the iPhone maker in 2016.
The EU is currently discussing how to toughen its rulebook to ensure fairer competition across the 27 member nations.
One potential change being discussed is ending "self-preferencing," which is when, for example, app search results on an Apple product display options developed by the tech giant. The idea is to give smaller app developers the same chance of being found and chosen by consumers.
European legislators are also looking at restricting target-advertising to bring more privacy to users. This could also affect how Big Tech operates within the European Union.
