A victory for Google: the European Union canceled a fine of 1.5 billion euros

The General Court of the European Union today (Wednesday) accepted the appeal filed by the search giant Google And canceled a fine of 1.5 billion euros (about 1.7 billion dollars), which was imposed on it in 2019. The fine was imposed by the European Commission, claiming that Google took advantage of its dominant position in the online advertising market to prevent competition.

As part of the decision, the judges determined that the European regulators erred in their investigation, thus accepting the company’s claims. Among other things, the judges argued in their decision that the union failed to prove that those Google contracts did harm consumers, or helped the company strengthen its dominant position in the online advertising markets on the search network. However, the ruling may still come up for another appeal, at the Supreme Court of the European Union.

The technology giants are in the crosshairs of the European Union

This decision is a significant victory for Google, after last week, the union won two other legal battles. In one of them, a fine of 2.4 billion euros was approved, imposed on Google back in 2017, for prioritizing its products in the search results; In the second, Apple’s appeal was rejected and it was ordered to pay a tax of 13 billion euros in Ireland.

This fight is part of a broader campaign by the European Commission against the big technology companies, with the aim of increasing the supervision and regulation of their activities in Europe.

The original lawsuit in which the appeal has now been accepted, filed, as mentioned, in 2019, focused on a specific part of Google’s advertising business, which concerns the sale of ads alongside search results on third-party websites. The European Union investigators claimed that Google inserted exclusivity clauses in its contracts, which prevented these sites from displaying similar ads sold by its competitors. According to the Commission, this conduct led to fewer choices and higher prices for advertisers and website owners – a cost that was apparently passed on to consumers.

The investigation was opened in 2016, seven years after Microsoft filed a complaint on the subject. However, by the time the investigation began, Google had already made a number of changes to allow its customers more freedom in displaying competing ads. Despite this, according to the European Commission, as of the time the fine was imposed, Google still held a share of over 70% in the European market for selling ads displayed alongside search results on third-party websites.