Google has ‘$1.7 billion good news’ in Europe: What the tech giant has to say – Times of India

Google has won its challenge against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine that was imposed on it five years ago for hindering rivals in online search advertising. The European Union‘s (EUs) second-highest court annulled the fine on Wednesday (September 18).
In 2019, the European Commission alleged that Google abused its dominance to prevent rivals from placing search ads on third-party websites, adding that these ‘illegal practices’ took place from 2006 to 2016.Google appealed the fine, sending the case to the EU’s General Court.

Google AdSense fine: What the court said on the previous ruling

News agency Reuters reported that the General Court upheld most of the Commission’s findings but it overturned the fine, citing errors in the assessment of the duration of the restrictive contract clauses
“The court (…) upheld most of the commission’s assessments, but annulled the decision imposing a fine of almost 1.5 billion euros on Google, on the grounds in particular that it had failed to take into account all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses that it had found to be unfair,” the judges said.

What Google has to say

Google expressed satisfaction with the ruling, stating that it had already made changes to its contracts in 2016 before the Commission’s decision.
“This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ websites. We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” the spokesperson told CNBC.
The Commission, meanwhile, said that it has taken the note of the judgement and will reflect on the possible next steps. It is to be noted that the Commission can appeal this decision which will send the case up to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s top court.
The AdSense fine is one of a trio of fines that have cost Google a total of 8.25 billion euros and was triggered by a complaint from Microsoft in 2010.
Earlier this month, the ECJ upheld a 2.4 billion euro ($2.65 billion) fine imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favouring its own shopping comparison service.