Google Wins Rare Legal Battle as 1.49bn euro Fine Scrapped
Google has just scored a rare win in Europe's second-highest court, which ruled that the European Commission made mistakes in fining the tech giant for abusing its market dominance. The Commission had accused Google of restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads between 2006 and 2016, but the court annulled the fine. This is a significant victory for Google, which has faced numerous antitrust fines in Europe, totaling 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019.
However, Google's ad tech business is still under scrutiny. The US Department of Justice is suing Google, alleging that its advertising business has acted as a monopoly, leading to higher ad prices for customers. The lawsuit claims that Google's dominance in search and text advertising has harmed competition and limited innovation in the ad tech industry.
In Europe, Google is also facing an investigation into its online display advertising business, with regulators examining whether the company unfairly favors its own ad technology services ². The investigation will explore whether Google's practices, such as requiring advertisers to use its Ad Manager to display ads on YouTube, are limiting competition.
Despite these challenges, Google remains a dominant player in the ad tech industry. Its advertising business generated $147 billion in revenue last year, and the company continues to innovate and expand its ad tech offerings ².
The US government is also taking the tech giant to court over the same issue, with prosecutors alleging its parent company, Alphabet, illegally operates a monopoly in the market.
Alphabet has argued its market dominance is due to the effectiveness of its products.
This case revolved around Google's AdSense product, which delivers adverts to websites - making Google almost like a broker for ads.
The Commission concluded Google had abused its dominance to prevent websites from using brokers other than AdSense when they were seeking adverts for their web pages.
It said the firm then added other "restrictive" clauses to its contracts to reinforce its market dominance - and levied a €1.49bn fine as a penalty.
The EU's General Court recently made a significant ruling regarding Google's AdSense case. In essence, the court upheld most of the Commission's findings but decided to annul the $1.7 billion fine imposed on Google. The reason for this annulment was that the Commission failed to consider all relevant factors regarding contract clauses and market definition, which led to the court concluding that Google didn't abuse its dominant position
This ruling is a rare win for Google, considering the company has faced numerous antitrust fines in Europe, totaling 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019. The Commission had accused Google of violating competition rules between 2006 and 2016 by restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads.
See also: TikTok’s Future Hangs in the Balance: Key Court Hearing Looms
