Google’s EU antitrust case has been withdrawn

It appears that Google has won its battle with an EU fine of €1.49 billion (£1.26 billion) for blocking rival advertisers from its online search engines. The action is related to the Google AdSense product, which delivers advertisements to websites.

The European Commission found that between 2006 and 2016, Google abused its market dominance by including exclusivity clauses in its contracts with third-party sites to prevent those sites from displaying ads sold on any service other than AdSense.

The rulings highlight the mixed record of outgoing EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in defending herself against Big Tech in court. Last week, it scored two major victories against Alphabet’s Google unit in a separate case and against Apple’s tax deal with Irish authorities. Europe’s second highest court ruled that the European Commission – which imposed the fine – “made errors in its assessment”.

The commission said it would “consider possible next steps”, which could include filing an appeal to the EU’s Supreme Court.
Google welcomed the ruling: “We are pleased that the court recognized the errors in the original decision and overturned the penalty,” it said in a statement. “We will carefully analyze the entire decision,” he added.

This is an unexpected ruling for Google, which was subject to fines worth a total of EUR 8.2 billion in 2017–2019 in connection with antitrust violations.

But it’s not just the EU that is under pressure from the highly lucrative online advertising business.

• Recently, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that Google was using anti-competitive practices to control the market.

• The United States is also taking Google to court over the same issue, with prosecutors accusing its parent company, Alphabet, of illegal there is a monopoly available. Alphabet argues that it owes its market dominance to the effectiveness of its products. The case concerned the Google AdSense product, which delivers advertising to websites.

The EU General Court upheld most of the Commission’s findings, but stayed the decision by which the Commission imposed the fine.

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Image: Ideogram

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