Google has just lost a fight with the EU, resulting in a $4.67 billion fine. That’s a record fine, by the way. The EU’s top court upheld the original fine over anti-competitive practices; Google did not manage to fight it off.
An 8-year-old case ends with a huge fine for Google
This whole case is 8 years old at this point. Back in 2018, the European Commission issued a fine to Google, a record-breaking one. It was issued due to the fact that Google allegedly abused Android’s mobile dominance and gave an unfair advantage to its own apps via pre-installation deals with smartphone makers.
Since the initial fine, Google has been appealing the ruling in the UE. The European Court of Justice (ECJ), ended up dismissing Google’s appeal today.
“The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against that judgment of the General Court, thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them, as revised by the General Court, for their anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system,” said the ECJ in a press release.
This is not the first large fine for Google, not at all. Last year, the European Commission hit Google with a €2.95 billion fine for anti-competitive practices in its advertising technology business. That proceeding is still ongoing.
The Android Headlines Take
We can all agree that fair market practices are of utmost importance. The sheer number of antitrust cases that we’ve seen in the last 5 years is truly high. Google is not the only one in the EC’s crosshairs; that includes other companies, such as Apple and Meta.
Such companies have incredible power when it comes to market positioning, and if they amplify that unfairly, the punishment follows. Stifling the competition is never a good move. It remains to be seen what will happen with all the ongoing cases, but things are not looking good for Google at the moment.
The post EU Hits Google With a Record Multi-Billion-Dollar Fine — and This Time It’s Final appeared first on Android Headlines.
