Google didn’t make it. The 2.4 billion fine imposed in 2017 by the European Commission for abuse of a dominant position remains and must be paid. The Court of Justice of the European Union rejected the appeal filed by Google and Alphabet. The ruling and fine reaffirmed, remain. The Court also confirmed the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple illegal aid that it must now recover.
The Google affair first. The Court’s decision reaffirmed what was ruled during the long legal battle between Big and the European authorities. Google violated European competition rules by favoring its own product comparison service over those of its competitors. The company in fact positioned the results of its own product comparison service prominently on the search results page, enhancing them with eye-catching visual and textual elements, while the results of competitors appeared as simple generic links, often demoted to less visible positions. The dispute dates back to 2017, when the European Commission imposed a record fine on Google for abuse of a dominant position in the national Internet search markets in thirteen countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). The fine of 2.4 billion euros had already been confirmed by the General Court of the European Union in November 2021. Google and Alphabet, however, had appealed the ruling before the Court of Justice, requesting the annulment of the European Commission’s decision and the ruling of the General Court. The Court of Justice, however, rejected the appeal, reaffirming the validity of the sanction.
The decision comes at a crucial time for the European antitrust, under Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. In an interview with MF-Milano Finanza, Vestager said: “we are convinced that Google should divest part of its advertising business” to reduce the inherent conflict of interest that comes from Google’s control of the online advertising market, advertising networks and publisher services. The Commissioner, whose mandate is coming to an end, made it clear that the fight against the tech giants is only “at the end of the beginning”, with the Digital Markets Act and other regulations set to come into force to make digital markets more contestable and open to competition.
Then there is the Apple case. The European Court of Justice has upheld the European Commission’s 2016 decision that Ireland granted Apple illegal state aid that must be recovered. The case concerns two “tax rulings” issued by Ireland in 1991 and 2007, which allowed two Apple group companies to pay less tax on profits generated outside the United States. In 2020, the EU General Court annulled the Commission’s decision, arguing that a selective advantage for Apple was not demonstrated, but the Court of Justice has now overturned this ruling, reaffirming the validity of the Commission’s position and Ireland’s obligation to recover around €13 billion in illegal tax advantages.
The confirmation of the €2.4 billion fine to Google is one of the most significant decisions in the history of European antitrust and sets an important precedent for future regulations against abuses of dominant position in the digital market. Google, for its part, expressed “disappointment” with the sentence, but has not yet announced whether it intends to take further legal action. Today’s €2.4 billion is in addition to dozens and dozens of other antitrust and privacy-related fines in Europe, the United States and the rest of the world. A total sum, according to rough estimates, of over €10 billion.
