The Google logo is displayed on the smartphone screen and the European flag is displayed on the computer screen.
Nicholas Kokovlis | Noor Photos | Getty Images
The EU’s second-highest court said on Wednesday it would fine the following companies 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion): Google The regulator’s ruling should be overturned, siding with the US tech giant after it challenged the ruling.
The case originated in 2019, when the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said letterIts subsidiary Google abused its market dominance on a product called AdSense for Search. This product allows website owners to place ads within the search results of their own pages.
Google acts as an intermediary, allowing advertisers to serve ads through searches on third-party sites.
But the commission accused Google of abusing its market dominance by imposing a series of restrictive clauses in its contracts with third-party websites, ultimately preventing rivals from placing search ads on those sites.
The European Commission fined Google 1.49 billion euros at the time. Google appealed and sent the case to the EU’s General Court.
The EU’s General Court said on Wednesday it “upheld most of its findings” but “overturned the European Commission’s decision to impose a fine of nearly 1.5 billion euros”.
The court added that the Commission “failed to take into account all relevant circumstances when assessing the duration of the contractual provision” which it considered to be abusive.
A Google spokesperson told CNBC it will review the entire decision carefully.
“This case involves a small set of text-only search ads that ran on a limited number of publisher sites. We revised the contract in 2016 and removed the relevant provisions even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has acknowledged this. The original judgment contained errors and the fine was cancelled,” the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the commission said the commission noted the judgment and would consider possible next steps. Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
The Commission can appeal the decision to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court.
Recently, a number of court cases involving EU and US technology companies have come to their conclusions.
This month, European Court of Justice upholds €2.4 billion ($2.65 billion) fine imposed on Google A shopping comparison service that abuses its dominant position in favor of its own. The same court ruled that Apple must pay Ireland pays €13 billion in back taxesbringing an end to a decade-long case.
