Google and its parent company Alphabet lost their appeal Thursday against a multibillion-dollar European Union antitrust fine over the way the tech giant used Android to reinforce the dominance of its search engine.
The European Court of Justice rejected the companies’ challenge and upheld a penalty of about 4.1 billion euros ($4.7 billion), in a legally binding ruling that marks a major victory for EU regulators after years of litigation over Google’s mobile operating system.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: company to pay a fine of $4.7 billion
(Photo: Jose Luis Magana / AP)
The case dates back to 2018, when the European Commission found that Google had abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. Regulators said the practices helped ensure that Google Search remained the default gateway for users on Android phones.
According to the Commission’s original decision, Google committed three separate violations. It required manufacturers to preinstall the Google Search app and Chrome browser as a condition for licensing the Play Store; paid major manufacturers and mobile operators to exclusively preinstall Google Search; and prevented manufacturers that wanted access to Google apps from selling devices running alternative versions of Android not approved by Google.
In September 2022, the EU General Court largely upheld the Commission’s findings, but reduced the original fine from 4.3 billion euros to about 4.1 billion euros after finding that regulators had not sufficiently proved parts of the alleged violations. Thursday’s ruling by the European Court of Justice leaves the reduced penalty in place.
Google said after the earlier ruling that the decision failed to recognize its substantial investment in keeping Android open, interoperable and free, and said it had already changed its agreements to comply with the Commission’s 2018 decision.
FairSearch, the group that filed the original complaint with the Commission in 2013, previously called the ruling an important victory against practices it said harmed competition in the mobile market.
The Android case was one of several major antitrust actions brought against Google by former EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager as part of a broader effort to rein in the power of large technology companies.
Google remains under heightened regulatory scrutiny in Europe. Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the company has faced demands to remove technical barriers for competing AI-based search assistants on Android and to share data with rival search engines.
The company also faces the prospect of additional penalties over allegations that it favored its own services in search results and blocked app developers from directing users to offers outside the Play Store. Regulators are also examining whether Google unfairly downgraded news results.
The ruling could open the door to additional lawsuits from companies that say they were harmed by Google’s conduct, similar to recent competition claims brought against the company in Europe.