LONDON — Google won a court challenge on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed five years ago that targeted its online advertising business.
The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.
“The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court said in a press release.
The commission’s ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites.
Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google’s behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.
But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google’s contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.
The ruling can be appealed, but only on points of law, to the Court of Justice, the bloc’s top court.
The commission said in a brief statement that it “will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.”
Google said it changed its contracts in 2016 to remove the provisions in question, even before the commission imposed its decision.
“We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” Google said in a statement. “We will review the full decision closely.”
The company’s legal victory comes a week after it lost a final challenge against a separate EU antitrust case for its shopping comparison service that also involved a hefty fine.
They were among three antitrust penalties totaling about 8 billion euros that the commission punished Google with in the previous decade. The penalties marked the beginning of an era of intensifying scrutiny for Big Tech companies.
Since then, Google has faced escalating pressure on both sides of the Atlantic over its digital ad business. It’s currently battling the Justice Department in a U.S. federal court over allegations that its dominance over the technology that controls the sale of billions of internet display ads constitutes an illegal monopoly.
British competition regulators this month accused the company of abusing its dominance in the country’s digital ad market and giving preference to its own services.
EU antitrust enforcers carrying out their own investigation suggested last year that breaking up the company was the only way to satisfy competition concerns about its digital ad business.
Google has successfully overturned a 1.5 billion euro antitrust fine in a digital ad case, marking a significant victory for the tech giant in its ongoing legal battles with European regulators. The fine, which was imposed by the European Commission in 2019, was the result of an investigation into Google’s practices in the online advertising market.
The European Commission had accused Google of abusing its dominant position in the market by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with websites that prevented them from displaying ads from Google’s competitors. The Commission argued that these practices stifled competition and harmed consumers by limiting choice and driving up prices for online advertising.
However, Google appealed the decision to the European Court of Justice, arguing that the Commission had failed to prove that its practices had harmed competition. The court agreed with Google, ruling that the Commission had not provided sufficient evidence to support its findings.
The decision is a major victory for Google, which has faced a number of antitrust investigations and fines in Europe in recent years. The tech giant has been under increasing scrutiny from regulators around the world over its market dominance and business practices.
The ruling is likely to have far-reaching implications for the digital advertising industry, as it sets a precedent for how competition authorities can regulate the market. It also highlights the challenges that regulators face in trying to rein in the power of tech giants like Google, which have come to dominate key sectors of the economy.
Despite this victory, Google is still facing a number of other antitrust investigations and legal challenges in Europe and elsewhere. The tech giant will need to continue to navigate these legal hurdles as it seeks to maintain its dominant position in the digital advertising market.
Overall, the overturning of the 1.5 billion euro antitrust fine is a significant development in Google’s ongoing legal battles with European regulators. It underscores the complex and evolving nature of competition law in the digital age, and highlights the challenges that tech giants like Google face as they seek to navigate an increasingly regulated marketplace.
