Google wins €1.5 billion EU antitrust case on advertising
Google wins in €1.5 billion antitrust case, with the EU General Court supporting its challenge to the 2019 fine, citing errors by regulators in the investigation. This case marks another victory for Google following a previous antitrust abuse ruling. However, the decision can still be appealed to the European Court. The ruling comes after EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager's two previous wins
According to the information obtained by Zhitong Finance APP, Google (GOOGL.US) has won the €1.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) antitrust case, which to some extent, has made up for the disastrous defeat the company suffered in another abuse of dominance ruling last week.
Judges of the General Court of the European Union supported Google's challenge to the 2019 fine, stating that the regulatory authorities made mistakes in their investigation.
The European Commission had accused Google of illegally blocking competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft from placing ads on third-party websites as a dominant online ad broker. Google was fined €1.5 billion as a result. The ruling on Wednesday can still be appealed to the highest court of the EU - the European Court of Justice.
This decision comes after European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager won two cases in a row. Last week, Apple (AAPL.US) and Google lost in the two largest competition cases in EU history. Apple failed in the €13 billion (US$14.4 billion) Irish tax case demanded by the EU, while Google faced a €2.4 billion fine for abusing its dominance in the search market.
In addition, according to sources, Meta Platforms (META.US) is facing a huge fine from the EU for allegedly monopolizing the classified ads market. The EU could make a decision as early as next month, which will be one of the final investigations overseen by the departing Vestager