Google wins challenge against $1.7 billion EU competition fine
Google won a legal challenge Wednesday against a €1.49 billion ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine from the European Union, while chipmaker Qualcomm failed to repeal a penalty.
The rulings underscore the mixed record of outgoing EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in defending her crackdown on Big Tech in court. She scored two major wins last week: against Google in a separate case and against Apple's tax deal with Irish authorities.
In a 2019 decision, the European Commission said Google, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL), had abused its dominance to prevent websites from using brokers other than its AdSense platform that provided search ads. The practices that it said were illegal took place from 2006 to 2016.
The EU's General Court, part of the European Court of Justice, mostly agreed with the EU competition enforcer's assessments of the case, but annulled the fine, saying the Commission had failed to take into account all the relevant circumstances.
"The Commission has also not demonstrated that the clauses in question had, first, possibly deterred innovation, next, helped Google to maintain and strengthen its dominant position on the national markets for online search advertising at issue and, last, that they had possibly harmed consumers," the judges said.
Google said the case was about a narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers' websites.
The logo of Google is seen outside Google Bay View facilities during the Made by Google event in Mountain View, California, U.S. August 13, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters
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"We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission's decision. We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine," the company said in an email.
The Commission, which can appeal to the European Court of Justice on points of law, said it would study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps.
The AdSense fine, one of a trio of fines that have cost Google a total of €8.25 billion ($9.18 billion), was triggered by a complaint from Microsoft in 2010.
In Qualcomm's case, the US chipmaker only managed to convince the General Court to trim its EU antitrust fine to €238.7 million from €242 million.
Judges threw out all its arguments. The Commission imposed the fine in 2019, saying Qualcomm sold its chipsets below cost between 2009 and 2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to thwart British phone software maker Icera, now part of Nvidia.
The Commission said it had also taken note of that ruling.
Qualcomm, which can appeal to the European Court of Justice on points of law, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
