Google loses €2.4bn EU antitrust case over its own shopping service

In a win for the European Commission, the EU’s top court today (10 September) upheld a record-breaking €2.4 billion fine imposed on Google for anti-competitive promotion of its Shopping service.

It’s one of a pair of victories for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in her battle against big tech, as today judges also agreed with her in a €13bn case involving the low tax bills paid by Apple in Ireland.

In 2017, the Commission accused Google of favouring the results of its own price-comparison service, Google Shopping, in search results, disadvantaging competitors.

The company and its parent company Alphabet were ordered to pay a fine that was, at the time, the greatest ever imposed by the Commission under its tough antitrust powers.

Google failed in a bid to challenge the decision before the EU’s General Court, before appealing to the senior EU Court of Justice.

“In the light of the characteristics of the market and the specific circumstances of the case, Google’s conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of competition on the merits,” judges said today, dismissing the appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet.

Google presented the search results of its product comparator first, highlighting them with attractive visual and textual information, while results from rivals came lower down as a link, the Commission had said.

A spokesperson for Google told Euronews: “We are disappointed with the decision of the Court. This judgment relates to a very specific set of facts. We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision. Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services.” 

The ruling confirms an advisory opinion from Juliane Kokott, one of the Advocates-General of the Court, who in January said the fine should be upheld.

Google “was leveraging its dominant position on the market for general search services to favour its own comparison shopping service”, Kokott’s non-binding opinion said.

The loss for Google is a win for Vestager, who ends her reign as EU competition commission when a new college takes office later this year.

In a reaction, Agustín Reyna, Director General of consumer group BEUC, said he welcomes the decision, calling it “crucially important for Europe’s consumers.”

“The Court has confirmed that Google cannot unfairly deny European consumers access to full and unbiased online information about where to get the best deals,” Reyna said.