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A court of the European Union annulled a fine of 1.49 billion euros (1.65 billion dollars) imposed by Brussels a Google in 2019 by abuse from its dominant position in the online advertising market.
He General Court of the EU -which rules in first instance and has its seat in Luxembourg- announced that it “annuls in its entirety the decision of the European Commission”, considering that the Community executive “made errors in its assessment” of the matter.
The court ruled that Brussels “failed to take into account all relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses that the Commission demonstrated to be abusive.”
The Commission, the executive arm of the European Union which acts as a regulator in the countries of the 27-member bloc, can appeal the decision to the Court of Justice of the EU.
In March 2019, the Commission imposed a fine of 1.49 billion against the technology group, accused of imposing restrictive clauses in its contracts with websites.
The objective, according to Brussels, was to prevent rivals of Google’s advertising subsidiary from placing their ads.
The American firm decided to appeal the decision in court, and on Wednesday the court ruled in its favor. Since September 2016, Google has already removed several clauses from its contracts to comply with regulations.
“We amended our contracts in 2016 to remove the provisions concerned, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognised the errors in the initial decision and has suspended the fine“, a spokesman for the group reacted on Wednesday.
For its part, the European Commission He said he had “taken note of the ruling” and said he would study it carefully to reflect “on the next possible steps.”
This decision is a relief for Google, which last week lost an appeal before the highest court in the UE, confirming a fine of nearly 2.4 billion euros imposed by the authorities of the bloc in 2017 for anti-competitive practices in its service Google Shopping.
This fine is part of a broader strategy by the executive to regulate possible abuses by the giants of the technology.
Between 2017 y 2019, The EU has imposed fines of 8.2 billion euros on Google for alleged violations of antitrust rules.
In 2018, authorities imposed a record fine of 4.3 billion on Google, which was accused of imposing restrictions on the operating system of Android phones.
In 2022, Google got justice to UE reduced the fine to 4.1 billion euros, but the court appealed.
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2024-09-24 13:34:31