In a jolt to Alphabet’s Google, the European Court of Justice has upheld the imposition of a penalty on the tech giant for anticompetitive practices relating to its Android operating system
The penalty amounting to $4.67 billion was trimmed in 2022 by the General Court. The fine was imposed by the European Commission eight years ago in 2018 for exploiting its dominant position in the mobile operating system to block rivals and promote its own apps
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“The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against that judgment of the General Court, thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them, as revised by the General Court, for their anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system,” the ECJ said
The European Commission, in its decision, had concluded that the search engine giant, through pre-installation agreements and licencing conditions for certain apps, had promoted its search engine and Google Chrome app on smartphones that run on the Android operating system, which is also run by Google
In its 2022 verdict, the lower tribunal had confirmed the European Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful curbs on smartphone makers that used its Android operating system in pursuit of cementing its presence in the search engine market
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How did Google’s Android agreements violate EU competition laws?
The case dates back nearly a decade, when the Commission initiated a procedure on April 15, 2015, against Google on the basis of a clutch of complaints regarding some of its business practices in the mobile internet market
The Commission found Google in violation of the competition laws by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on smartphone makers that in some cases went as far back as January 1, 2011
The Commission arrived at three types of restrictions that were imposed by Google. The distribution agreement required smartphone makers to pre-install the Google Search engine and the Chrome app on the devices in order to get a licence from Google for its Play Store
The second one related to anti-fragmentation agreements under which the licences needed for pre-installation of the Google search engine and the Play Store app could only be obtained if the device makers agreed to sell devices running versions of Android approved by Google
The third type of restriction related to the sharing of advertisement revenue with device makers and network operators only if they didn’t install any competing search service on a predefined portfolio of devices
Under the Digital Markets Act, the European regulators have tightened the noose around top tech players for abusing competition laws. Last year, the Commission fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of dollars for breaching the Digital Markets Act
