1.5 billion fine annulled by European Court

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday to overturn a €1.5 billion fine imposed on Google by the European Commission, upholding the appeal of the American tech giant. The case dates back to 2019, when the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, accused Alphabet-owned Google of abusing its dominant market position in relation to its AdSense for Search product. This product allowed website owners to place ads in search results on their pages.

Google acts as an intermediary, allowing advertisers to place ads through search on third-party websites. The Commission argued that Google had abused its dominant position by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites, effectively preventing competitors from placing their own ads on those sites. At the time, the Commission fined Google €1.49 billion. Google appealed, taking the case to the EU General Court. The EU General Court said on Wednesday that it “confirmed most of the findings” but “annulled the decision by which the Commission imposed a fine” of nearly €1.5 billion.

The General Court added that the Commission “failed to take into account all relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual terms” it found unfair. “This case concerns a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publisher websites. We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the General Court has acknowledged the errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” Google said.

This month, the ECJ upheld a €2.4 billion fine imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own shopping comparison service. The same court ruled that Apple must pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland, ending a decade-long case.