Google ordered to pay 2.4 billion Euro fine

The European Court of Justice has rejected Google’s appeal to avoid a 2.4 billion Euro fine for anti-competition rules.

A European court has slapped Google with a 2.4 billion euro fine.

The penalty – which comes after the shopping comparison services Foundem and Kelkoo accused Google of abusing their market dominance – was initially issued in 2017 by the European Commission, but the tech giant had appealed it, so it was heard by the European Court of Justice.

Google said it was “disappointed” by the fine – which is the second largest issued by the authority, the first being a 4.3 Euro, which was also being given to them.

Kelkoo dubbed the ruling “a win for fair competition and consumer choice”.

The ECJ called Google’s practices “discriminatory”, and the appeal “must be dismissed in its entirety” via the ruling. The court also ruled that Google and its parent company, Alphabet, should pay their own costs and that those racked up by the European Commission.

In response, Google highlighted how they had made the relevant changes back at the time of the initial ruling.

The company said: “Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.”

Anne Witt, a law professor at EDHEC Business School’s Augmented Law Institute, told BBC News that it was “an important judgement” with potentially more negative repercussions for Google.

She added: “This is bad news for Google, which has exhausted its legal remedies in this case.

“Several follow-on actions by injured parties claiming compensation for losses suffered as a consequence of Google’s anticompetitive conduct are already pending in national courts.”

This comes after UK courts ruled Google violated anti-competition rules to become the market leader for online advertising.