Brothers in arms! Google and Apple both lost lawsuits in the European Union on the same day
Google was fined 2.4 billion euros by the European Union for abusing its dominant market position, failing to overturn the ruling. The European Court of Justice upheld the 2017 ruling, finding Google illegally exploiting its dominant position in search engines. Meanwhile, Apple's tax case in Ireland was also overturned. This event marks a new stage in the EU's antitrust action against Google, which may lead to more severe penalties
According to the financial news app Zhitong Finance, Google (GOOGL.US) has been fined a record €2.4 billion (US$2.6 billion) by the European Union for abusing its dominant position to suppress competition in its shopping services, and Google failed to overturn this ruling.
The European Union court in Luxembourg upheld a landmark ruling from 2017, which found that the American tech giant illegally exploited its dominant position in search engines to give higher rankings to its own product listings.
European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, who took office in 2014, made Google her number one target. It is worth noting that on the same day, the Commissioner also successfully overturned a lower court ruling in a case involving Apple (AAPL.US), which involved a €13 billion (US$14.4 billion) tax case in Ireland.
The EU's antitrust enforcement agency's focus on Google is not only about the company's dominance in search. This case involving shopping services is the first of three fines, with the total amount of the three fines exceeding €8 billion.
A Google spokesperson expressed disappointment with the court's ruling, stating that the proposals made in 2017 to address the EU's concerns have helped bring more clicks to other shopping services.
Following this shopping case, the company was fined a record €4.3 billion in 2018 for alleged restrictive contract terms that prevented tablet and smartphone manufacturers from adding competitive apps and web browsers on Android devices.
Less than a year later, the company was fined €1.49 billion for thwarting advertising competition by exclusive agreements through its AdSense for Search product.
Crucially, the EU's fourth and possibly final charge against Google's business under Vestager's leadership may bring the most severe penalty. The Danish Commissioner warned that the only way to correct Google's dominant position in the advertising technology sector is to forcibly separate the company's business in that area - a move that would lead EU regulators down a path similar to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is seeking a similar split.
The EU's competition regulators hope that Google's actions will be thoroughly corrected through the comprehensive new regulations that came into effect last year - the Digital Markets Act