Lately, Google has been involved in multiple antitrust lawsuits. Governments have questioned the methods implemented by the company to reach its current dominant position in the market. A lawsuit involving the AdSense platform resulted in a substantial 1.49 billion euro fine for Google. However, the fine has been overturned, which has brought good news to the company.
The EU General Court annuls big 1.49 billion euro fine against Google
In 2019, the European Commission (EC), the main enforcement arm of the EU, fined Google €1.49 billion for allegedly harming competitors in the online search advertising segment. The body had determined that Google used exclusivity contracts to illegally prevent publishers from turning to alternative intermediaries to AdSense. The ruling was based on practices that occurred between 2006 and 2016.
However, Google appealed the ruling to the European General Court (EGC), the second highest court in Europe. As a result, the ECG found that the EC “committed errors in its assessment.” The EGC nonetheless upheld most of the original ruling, but nullified it as potentially vitiated by said errors.
“The court (…) upheld most of the commission’s assessments but annulled the decision imposing a fine of almost 1.5 billion euros on Google, on the grounds in particular that it had failed to take into account all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses which it had found to be unfair,” reads the decision of the General Court.
Google has more pending antitrust lawsuits
The annulment of the 1.49 billion euro fine comes as a small respite for Google in the face of a string of significant unfavorable rulings. “We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and nullified the fine,” Google said in a statement. Last week, the Mountain View giant got an even bigger 2.4 billion euro fine. The case was based on anti-competitive practices in Google’s shopping comparison service. Additionally, the company has pending antitrust cases in the United States and other regions.