https://p.dw.com/p/5GQ1E
Google will have to pay a record €4.125 billion ($4.67 billion) antitrust fine over anti-competitive practices after the European Union’s top court ruled against an appeal by the tech giant on Thursday
The European Commission initially imposed a €4.3 billion penalty in 2018, accusing Google of abusing its Android system’s market dominance by requiring phone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome
The EU’s executive branch accused the search engine giant of restricting competition while imposing the bloc’s highest antitrust fine ever
The EU’s General Court upheld the findings in 2022, but reduced the fine from €4.34 billion to €4.125 billion. Google then appealed to the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice the EU’s highest court, which has now sided with the bloc’s antitrust enforcer
“The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system,” judges said
Can the EU control US tech giants?
Google claimed EU blind to Apple’s practices
Google claimed the case was unfounded, saying that the sanction penalized innovation and that Android users were free to download rival apps
“In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers,” Google said in a statement
Earlier, the tech giant had also accused the EU of being blind to practices by Apple pushing its own services on iPhones
Google fined more than €8 billion
The latest case is one of several antitrust disputes between Google and the EU, which fined the company more than €8 billion between 2017 and 2019 over antitrust violations
The EU has other open investigations into Big Tech giants under its Digital Markets Act (DMA).Thursday’s ruling looks set to boost the bloc’s regulatory crackdown
Among the other EU sanctions Google is facing for exploiting its market dominance are:
- €2.95 billion fine handed down in September 2025 for favoring its own advertising services
- €2.4 billion competition fine for promoting its own shopping services
Last year, US President Donald Trump accused Brussels of unfairly targeting American firms and threatened the EU with retaliatory tariffs
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