Google Wins $1.66bn Legal Battle

Google overturned a $1.66 billion (€1.49 billion) fine from the European Union on Wednesday, after a five-year battle over antitrust liability related to its digital advertising practices.

The EU’s General Court canceled out the 2019 ruling, which had been handed down by the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.

“The General Court announces the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court stated in a press release.

The penalty targeted a specific segment of Google’s advertising business: ads placed alongside Google search results on third-party websites. The European Commission had accused the tech giant of using exclusivity clauses in contracts that prohibited these sites from hosting similar ads sold by competitors.

The commission considered that this practice reduced competition, left advertisers with fewer options, and likely increased costs for consumers.

However, the General Court ruled that the commission had “committed errors” in its assessment. The court concluded that the EU regulators failed to prove that Google’s contracts stifled innovation, harmed consumers, or helped the company maintain or bolster its dominant position in online search advertising.

While the judgment can be appealed to the Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, such an appeal would only be allowed on specific points of law.

In response to the ruling, the European Commission issued a brief statement, saying it “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.”

In a statement to Newsweekand a Google spokesperson said: “This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ websites. We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision “We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely.”

This legal victory follows a separate case last week, in which Google lost a final appeal regarding another EU antitrust decision involving its shopping comparison service. That case also carried a substantial fine.

Over the past decade, the European Commission has levied fines totaling around $8.9 billion (€8 billion) against Google, marking the start of a new era of scrutiny for Big Tech. As the company continues to grapple with mounting pressure from regulators, this ruling provides a temporary respite from the ongoing legal battles surrounding its digital advertising operations.

Currently, Google is defending itself in a US federal court, where the Department of Justice has accused it of illegally monopolizing the technology used to sell billions of display ads online. British regulators have also recently taken aim at Google, accusing it of abusing its dominant position in the UK’s digital ad market by favoring its own services.

EU antitrust officials suggested last year that breaking up Google’s ad business might be the only viable solution to address their competition concerns.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press