The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled Tuesday it will uphold a former ruling by the European Commission and levy a fine of €2.4 billion against Google with regard to Google Shopping, ending a years-long antitrust case against the tech giant.
The fine, initially announced in 2017 and then appealed by Google and Alphabet, is being imposed against the internet giant for abusing its “dominant position” in a number of online search markets as it favored its own shopping service over competitors’.
In a statement about today’s ruling, European Commission executive vice president Margrethe Vestager called the decision a “landmark” in the history of regulatory actions against big tech.
“This case was symbolic because it demonstrated that even the most powerful tech companies could be held accountable. No one is above the law. It inspired regulators and policymakers worldwide to scrutinize the activities of digital giants more closely. The Google Shopping case set a precedent and paved the way for further regulatory actions, including the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Union.”
This case specifically related to Google Shopping and the way Google gives preferential treatment in its search results to its own price-comparison service.
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“The Court of Justice recalls that EU law does not sanction the existence per se of a dominant position, but only the abusive exploitation thereof,” Tuesday’s judgment reads. “In particular, the conduct of undertakings in a dominant position that has the effect of hindering competition on the merits and is thus likely to cause harm to individual undertakings and consumers is prohibited.”
Google said in a statement it is “disappointed” by the decision.
“This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts. We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision,” said Google. “Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”
For several years many travel technology leaders have been pushing the European Commission to address Google’s dominance in search and limiting the ability of their companies to compete.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn, Trivago CEO Johannes Thomas wrote in response to today’s ruling, “For more than a decade, we’ve watched Google deploy its power by self-preferencing its hotel search product. This practice has significantly affected our hotel search business as Google preferenced their own hotel services at the top of their search results. … We are glad to see this progress which is a clear signal demanding fair competition. It’s our belief that promoting fair competition is in the best interest of the global economy, consumers and society.”
Meanwhile in the United States, Google is in federal court this week fighting charges accusing it of abusing its dominance in digital advertising. And this fine by the European Commission comes weeks after a United States district court judge ruled that Google had illegally used its market dominance to establish a search monopoly.
This story will be updated.