Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., won the challenge against the UK watchdog for the 1.49 billion Euro, or US$1.7 billion, European Union antitrust fine.
The Luxembourg-based General Court ruled that the European Commission did not take under consideration all the relevant circumstances in its decision while it was imposing the fine for grounds of alleged abuse of dominance to bar websites from using rival advertising services.
On top of these EU developments, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is bringing new charges against Google. The CMA has alleged that Google has been involved in anti-competitive practices online in the area of advertising. Preliminary findings by the CMA indicate that the dominant search engine had choked off competition in key advertising technologies. Read more
The court agreed with the Commission's findings of anticompetitive practice by Google initially. However, it rebuked the enforcing agency for failure to demonstrate that Google's practices remarkably stifled competition and harmed customers. It turned out to be a win for Google since the company said it has amended its contracts since 2016 to correct the concerns brought by the case.
In other case, the General Court delivered a partially reversible judgment when in a similar case Qualcomm tried to overturn an award for prejudice based on predatory pricing. US chipmaker Qualcomm is challenging a 242 million euro or US$258.4 million EU antitrust fine, appealing the judgment of last year to eliminate the fine it imposed in 2019 against British software maker Icera, which is now part of Nvidia. Qualcomm already had one larger fine dismissed by the court. The General Court reduced the amount of the fine imposed but largely confirmed a Commission finding that it sold chipsets at below-cost prices to damage competitors.
The European Commission is now deciding to appeal the General Court ruling to the European Court of Justice. The outcomes, therefore from these court battles may eventually change Google's playing field and its operation around Europe.