Google defeats the EU Commission and saves 1.49 billion euros
In the dispute over a competition fine of 1.49 billion euros, Google has achieved a victory before the EU General Court. The EU Commission did not sufficiently demonstrate that Google had abused its dominant position in search engine advertising in the “ AdSense for Search ” service, the judges ruled.
Although the judges confirmed most of the EU Commission's findings, they annulled the fine. The Brussels authority had not taken into account all relevant circumstances in determining whether Google's contractual terms were unfair.
According to the tech giant, it had already made changes to the model before the EU Commission's decision and subsequently defended itself from the fine in the EU court.
The decision can still be appealed to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice ( ECJ ). However, this is yet another flop for the Von Der Leyen 1 commission and its competition commissioner, Vestager.
More defeats in court
Google already suffered a defeat before the European Court of Justice last week: The judges upheld a fine of 2.4 billion euros imposed by the EU Commission in relation to the price comparison service Google Shopping.
The tech giant had abused its market power by favoring the results of its own price comparison service over those of its competitors on the general search results page. Google had already made changes before the ruling.
Brussels has been struggling for years to prevent distortions of competition by giant tech companies. In addition to laws such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to combat the dominant position of large online platforms, the EU Commission's competition watchdogs have imposed several fines on Google totaling as much as eight billion euros in recent years. years.
While the company has quickly digested these sanctions with its booming online advertising business, in some cases it has had to change its business model.
More problems in the USA
In the US, things are less good for Google Alphabet: the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology.
The Justice Department, joined by a coalition of states, and Google made opening statements Monday to a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, who will decide whether Google holds a monopoly on online advertising technology.
Regulators allege that Google built, acquired and maintained a monopoly on technology that matches online publishers with advertisers. The government argues that dominance over software on both the buy and sell sides allows Google to retain up to 36 cents on the dollar when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers.
The government argues that Google also controls the advertising exchange market, which combines the buy side with the sell side.
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/google-sconfigge-la-commissione-eu-e-risparmia-149-miliardi-di-euro/ on Wed, 18 Sep 2024 10:30:29 +0000.