Google wins $1.66 billion antitrust fine case in Europe

Alphabet subsidiary Google has successfully challenged a $1.66 billion antitrust fine imposed by the European Commission five years ago.

The fine was related to Google’s AdSense platform and its alleged abuse of a dominant position in online search advertising (3).

The European Commission had accused Google of blocking websites from using brokers other than AdSense, which provided search ads, between 2006 and 2016.

However, the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg annulled the fine, finding that the Commission had not taken into account all the relevant circumstances in assessing the duration of the contractual terms deemed unfair (3).

According to the judges, “the court (…) confirmed most of the Commission’s assessments, but annulled the decision imposing a fine of almost 1.5 billion euros on Google…”

The decision comes as a relief to Google, which had already amended the targeted contracts in 2016 before the Commission’s decision.

The fine is one of three imposed on Google, totaling €8.25 billion. The complaint was originally filed by Microsoft in 2010, alleging that Google’s practices were harming its competitors in online search advertising (3).

Google’s victory is a significant development, especially since the company last week lost its last fight against a €2.42 billion fine for using its price comparison service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European competitors.