Google overturns €1.5 billion EU antitrust fine

Google has successfully appealed a significant antitrust fine imposed by the European Commission five years ago. The European General Court annulled the €1.5 billion penalty, citing errors in the Commission’s assessment of the company's advertising contracts.

The Commission had argued that Google’s contracts with publishers hindered innovation, solidified its market dominance, and harmed consumers. However, the court found that the Commission failed to provide sufficient evidence to support these claims.

Timeline of Events:

In 2019, the Commission fined Google for imposing restrictive contracts on third-party websites using its AdSense platform. These contracts prevented these websites from displaying ads from Google’s competitors alongside Google search results.

Google appealed the fine, arguing that the Commission had made “material errors of analysis”. This marked the third major antitrust penalty against the Alphabet-owned company by the EU in the last decade.

Google has since changed its contracts to address the Commission’s concerns. A Google spokesperson stated that the company is pleased with the court’s decision and that the case involved a limited number of text-only search ads placed on a subset of publishers’ websites.

Ongoing Investigations

While Google has won this particular case, it faces ongoing antitrust investigations in the EU and the US. The EU is investigating whether Google favours its own ad technology services and is also examining its compliance with the Digital Markets Act. In the US, the Department of Justice and state Attorneys General are investigating Google’s dominance in the ad tech market.

Also read:

Google’s Ad Empire Under Fire: Landmark Antitrust Trial Begins

Key Points:

Google successfully overturned a €1.5 billion antitrust fine.
The European General Court found errors in the Commission’s assessment.
Google has changed its contracts to address concerns.
Ongoing investigations continue in both the EU and the US.