EU Top Court Upholds Google's €4.125 Bln Android Antitrust Fine

(RTTNews) - The European Union's highest court on Thursday dismissed Google's appeal against a multi-billion euro antitrust penalty, upholding a €4.125 billion fine for abusing its dominant position through the Android mobile operating system.

The Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed a 2022 ruling by the General Court, which had largely upheld the European Commission's 2018 decision while reducing the original €4.34 billion fine to €4.125 billion.

In 2018, the European Commission adopted a decision in which it concluded that Google had abused its dominant position by requiring, in particular through pre- installation agreements and licensing conditions for certain apps, that its search engine, Google Search, and its Chrome browser be promoted on mobile devices running the Android operating system, which is also provided by Google.

It therefore found a single and continuous infringement covering the whole of that conduct and imposed an overall fine on Google of €4.342 billion, with Alphabet jointly and severally liable as to €1.921 billion.

The Court ruled that the General Court did not err in its assessment that Google's practices restricted competition and reinforced barriers to entry. It also rejected Google's arguments that the Commission was required to conduct additional counterfactual analyses or prove foreclosure of equally efficient competitors.

Google said it had already modified its Android agreements following the Commission's 2018 decision and remained committed to innovation and openness. The ruling ends an eight-year legal battle over one of the EU's largest antitrust penalties.