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Photo: KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
The General Court of the European Union (EuG) has confirmed a competition fine from the EU Commission in the amount of 2.42 billion euros at the expense of Google and its parent company Alphabet.
This became known on Wednesday from Luxembourg.
According to a press release, the judges share the EU Commission's assessment that Google has preferred its own shopping comparison service over competing offers.
The digital company can still appeal the judgment to the European Court of Justice.
Specifically, the EU Commission accuses Google of having given its price comparison service Google Shopping an unlawful advantage. The group had "abused its dominant position as a search engine operator by placing its own price comparison service at the top of its search results and downgrading the comparison services of the competition," said EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager 2017, who is still responsible for competition the decision from Brussels was "legally, factually and economically" wrong.
The current judgment is the first in a series of legal disputes between the EU Commission responsible for competition in the European Union and the American group.
Since 2017, the Brussels authority has imposed several fines with a historic total of more than eight billion euros on Google.
Due to the competitive situation with the most widely used smartphone system in the world - Android - a record fine of 4.34 billion euros was due in 2018.
Eight months later, 1.49 billion euros were added because, according to the Commission's assessment, Google had inadmissibly hindered other providers in search engine advertising in the AdSense for Search service.
Google is also taking legal action against these two penalties.
mbö / dpa
