EU Court Upholds €2.4 Billion Fine against Google for Market Abuse

The ruling was welcomed by Kelkoo and the other parties involved in the complaint as a victory of fair competition and consumer choice

Google has been sentenced by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to pay a penalty of €2.4 billion for exploiting its market power in online shopping comparison services. The ruling maintains a fine that was first enforced by the European Commission in 2017 after Google disadvantaged rival comparison websites by favoring its own shopping service over competitors in search results.

Google challenged the decision, saying there was not enough economic and legal support for the lawsuit. However, the court supported the Commission's conclusions about discriminatory practices by rejecting Google's appeal fully. Moreover, the court's decision demands that Google and its parent firm, Alphabet, pay the European Commission's legal fees in addition to their own. A complaint was made in 2009 by Foundem, a UK-based company, claiming that Google manipulated price comparison by hiding the visibility of competitors. The ruling was welcomed by Kelkoo and the other parties involved in the complaint as a victory of fair competition and consumer choice. While expressing dissatisfaction Google highlighted the improvements made in 2017 in response to the Commission's ruling, which it claims have helped more than 800 comparison shopping services.

The decision is made as Google faces an increasing number of legal challenges. The company is presently contesting a separate action brought by the U.S. government over its advertising technology business, on in addition to ongoing EU antitrust investigations. Google’s legal conflicts with international authorities are getting more severe, with the European Commission charging the company €8.2 billion as fine.