Earlier today, the European General Court confirmed the EU Commission’s antitrust decision to fine Google. The tech giant is facing a very expensive $ 4.12 billion fine for having abused its dominant position.
The case started back in 2015 when the Commission started to investigate and eventually issued a fine in 2018 against Google for imposing “unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine.”
This fine – which was just slightly lowered by the General Court – is the highest ever imposed on a company by the antitrust regulators.
RELATED ARTICLES: EU Proposes Ban on Products Made With Forced Labour | The Climate Emergency: Can Europe Be a Model for the World? | How the EU Commission Leads the Battle to Save the Planet | Green Google: Are Tech Brands the Sustainable...|
Google tried to claim in its defense that Android smartphone users unlike those using Apple’s iOS can still remove the pre-installed apps. But considering the significant number of Android users – currently, around 80% of total smartphones – the European Court of Justice considered Google’s action an “unlawful restriction on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine”. The court further added that the fine is “appropriate in view of the significance of the infringement.”
Google is facing the second defeat in court in a year after having to pay $ 2.42 billion just last year. The total antitrust fines imposed on Google now add up to a total of over 8 Billion euros.
Google will still be able to appeal this decision in front of the European Court of Justice, but considering the orientation of the Commission and the previous ruling it will be difficult to overturn this decision.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by Impakter.com columnists are their own, not those of Impakter.com –In the Featured Photo: Google app on a smartphone. Photo credit: Unsplash.
