Google just lost its last shot at overturning a €4.1 billion antitrust fine in Europe.
The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest court, dismissed Google’s final appeal on July 2, upholding penalties first imposed back in 2018 for using its Android operating system to squeeze out competitors. Alphabet’s shares dipped roughly 1% in premarket trading on the news.
What Google actually did
Google required device manufacturers who wanted access to the Google Play Store to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on their phones and tablets. Google also restricted manufacturers from selling devices running alternative, “forked” versions of Android.
The European Commission originally slapped Google with a €4.34 billion fine in July 2018, calling the practices illegal under EU competition law. Google appealed to the EU General Court, which agreed the violations occurred but trimmed the penalty to €4.125 billion in 2022. Google then took its case to the CJEU, hoping for a different outcome. It didn’t get one.
