Google's Appeal Flops Again: EU Antitrust Case Victory

In its ongoing battle with the European Union, Google has faced yet another blow. On Tuesday, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) upheld a significant antitrust ruling from 2017, leaving Google on the losing side once again. The ruling centers around Google's shopping comparison service, which the European Commission found guilty of breaking competition rules years ago. The result? A hefty €2.42 billion fine (about $2.7 billion), which Google has been fighting to overturn ever since. Spoiler alert: it's not going well for them.


The initial ruling found that Google gave its own shopping service an unfair advantage in search results, harming its competitors. Despite making some tweaks to its practices in 2017, Google continued to push back against the decision. In November 2021, the General Court of the European Union largely dismissed their challenge, although they did annul part of the Commission's findings related to Google's general search services. But the bulk of the penalty stuck. And now, after Google appealed once more, the CJEU has once again confirmed that the tech giant's self-preferencing was indeed anti-competitive.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition chief, has been vocal about the significance of this case, calling it a "landmark" in regulating Big Tech. She emphasized that while companies like Google are free to innovate, they can't exploit their dominant market position to squash the competition. The message is clear: just because you're at the top, doesn't mean you can bend the rules.

As for Google, they're not exactly thrilled. A spokesperson expressed their disappointment with the court's decision, insisting that the changes they made back in 2017 have been successful, benefiting hundreds of comparison shopping services over the years. However, with this ruling, Google's options for further appeal are slim, unless they can challenge the decision on a technicality.

And that's not all from the EU's legal showdown. On the same day, the CJEU handed down another big decision, this time targeting Apple. The court sided with the Commission in a dispute over whether Ireland gave Apple illegal tax breaks, ordering the company to fork over $15 billion in back taxes and fees. Seems like a tough day for Big Tech in Europe.

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