Court of Justice of The European Union Upholds €2.4 Billion Fine Against Google

On 27.06.2017, the European Commission (Commission) imposed a fine of €2.4 billion on Google for abusing its dominant position in online search markets by favoring its own comparison shopping service. Google and Alphabet appealed the Commission’s decision to the General Court of the European Union (General Court), and on 10.11.2021, the General Court largely rejected Google’s appeals and upheld the fine imposed by the Commission.

Upon Google and Alphabet’s appeal against the General Court’s decision, on 10.09.2024, with the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Decision), the decision of the General Court was upheld and the fine imposed on Google became final.

Significant aspects of the Decision are summarized below:

• In the decisions of the Commission and the General Court, Google was found to favor the results of its comparison shopping service on its general search results page compared to competing comparison shopping services. These decisions state that Google used boxes accompanied by eye-catching images and textual information to highlight the results of its own service. In contrast, the search results of competing comparison shopping services appear as simple generic results and are susceptible to being down-ranked by Google’s algorithms on the generic results pages.
• Google and Alphabet’s appeal is based on several arguments, notably that Google’s comparison shopping services do not constitute anti-competitive behavior and their potential impact has been misjudged.
• In its assessments, the CJEU first reminds us that EU law does not penalize the existence of a dominant position, but only its abuse. Accordingly, conduct by undertakings in a dominant position which has the effect of preventing competition and is therefore likely to harm undertakings and consumers is prohibited.
• The CJEU considered that, given the characteristics of the market and the circumstances of the case, Google’s favoritism of its own comparison shopping service was discriminatory and incompatible with the general principles of competition law. Accordingly, the CJEU upheld the General Court’s decision, rejecting all the arguments of Google and Alphabet.
• It is assessed that the Decision will have a significant impact on the implementation of the Digital Markets Act and will serve as a reference point for the relevant authorities and courts.