What you need to know
- The EU's General Court overturned a €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) antitrust fine against Google, initially imposed in 2019.
- The European Commission accused Google of unfairly dominating the online ad market by preventing websites from using other ad brokers, particularly through its AdSense for Search platform.
- The court agreed with some of the Commission's findings but noted it failed to consider important factors, such as the length of Google's ad contracts and whether publishers could choose other ad services.
The General Court of the European Union has scrapped a massive €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) antitrust fine that Google faced from the European Commission back in 2019. The EU had charged the search giant with using its power in the online ad space to unfairly dominate the market.
The EC said in 2019 that Google used its dominance in digital advertising to block websites from working with other ad brokers. The focus was on Google's AdSense for Search (ADS) platform, which handled search ads. According to the Commission, these anti-competitive practices took place from 2006 to 2016.
ADS allows website owners to embed ads directly into their search results. Google acts as the middleman, connecting advertisers with third-party websites to display ads through their search features.
Three months after the Commission's ruling, Google filed a legal appeal against the antitrust fine. At the same time, to avoid further penalties, the company made major changes to how Google Shopping and Android functioned within the EU.
The General Court in Luxembourg mostly agreed with the Commission’s findings in the Google case but ruled that the EC overlooked some important factors (via TechCrunch).
The judges found that the Commission made a mistake in how it assessed the length of Google's advertising contracts with publishers. They also pointed out that the Commission didn’t check if those publishers had the choice to use competing ad services besides Google's.
The Commission, with the option to appeal to the EU Court of Justice, said it will thoroughly analyze the ruling and weigh its next actions.
This landmark decision is a major win for Google in its legal battles with EU regulators. Additionally, this positive outcome could give the Alphabet-owned company a strong boost in its ongoing fights with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Google has been a frequent target of antitrust scrutiny in recent years, both in the EU and the United States. While this latest victory is a significant win for the company, it remains under investigation for other alleged anti-competitive practices. Last week, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager scored significant victories against Google in a different case.
