Google loses EU appeal of $4.67B fine for Android anti-trust issues
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJuly 2 (UPI) -- Europe's highest court on Thursday upheld the $4.67 billion judgment against Google for alleged anti-competitive practices on the Android platform.
Google appealed the ruling in the European Union's court system, but the European Court of Justice dismissed the company's appeal. Now the company has no right to appeal further.
The European Commission gave Google a $4.9 billion fine in 2018 saying it abused Android's mobile dominance to give an unfair advantage to its own apps via pre-installation deals with smartphone makers. In 2022, a lower court reduced the fine to $4.67, which is what Google will now have to pay.
"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," the ECJ said in a press release.
Shares of Google-parent Alphabet dropped about 1% in premarket trading, CNBC reported.
"Android provides more choice for everyone and supports thousands of businesses. This judgment fails to recognize our significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free," a Google spokesperson told CNBC.
"In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers," the spokesperson said.
Last year, the EC gave Google a $3.73 billion fine for anti-competitive practices in its advertising technology business.
"The decision itself is particularly important in so far as it represents the end of what might be termed the European Commission's 'first stage' battle with big tech, that is the use of its competition law powers to deal with the behavior of the Big Tech companies in terms of stifling competition on EU markets," Alex Haffner, partner at Fladgate, told CNBC.
"More recently, the Commission's focus has switched to the legislative tools at its disposal, particularly the Digital Services Act, to regulate Big Tech and it's likely therefore that this will be the regulatory focus moving forward."