The EU General Court has ruled that the fine of 2.4 billion euros on Google will not be cancelled. The fine was imposed by the European Commission, which found in 2017 the US tech giant had favoured its online shopping service in search results, Belgian news portal EurActiv reports.
The bloc’s General Court rejected on Wednesday, November 10, the appeal by the US company against an important decision by the European Commission. It found that the widely-used search engine had abused its dominant market position to favour its Shopping Unit against the similar services of competitors. Google, in turn, had opposed the decision by the EU executive body, which imposed a EUR 2.4 billion fine.
Read also: EU’s competition watchdogs unsatisfied with Google flight and hotel price info
The European Commission’ antitrust investigation was opened in 2010, after complaints that the tech company was displaying its Shopping Unit in a more visible manner than competitors. The final decision in 2017 was that Google’s algorithm had been illegally demoting competing shopping services in the general result list.
«Google’s misleading and unfair practices harmed millions of European consumers by ensuring that rival comparison shopping services were virtually invisible. As a result, Google prevented consumers from accessing product information and potentially cheaper prices provided by rival comparison shopping services,» commented Monique Goyens, the head of the European consumer rights organisation BEUC.
EU General Court: 2.4-bln-euro fine on Google to stay
