18 Sep Google wins EU antitrust fine fight over ads
Updated on September 19, 2024 by David Lalire
Google won a significant victory on Wednesday in its battle with the European Union’s antitrust authorities, as the General Court of the European Union overturned a €1.49 billion ($1.66 billion) fine imposed by the European Commission in 2019.
This ruling marks an important success for Google, especially as the company continues to face scrutiny over its advertising practices.
The European Commission imposed this fine in 2019, arguing that Google abused its search engine and advertising broker dominance. As The Wall Street Journal points out, the Commission claimed that Google imposed restrictive terms in contracts with third-party websites, effectively preventing Google’s rivals from placing their own search ads on those sites. According to the Commission, this practice lasted for more than a decade, ending in 2016.
The case revolved around Google’s AdSense for Search service, which allows website owners, such as news sites and blogs, to display ads when readers use the search function on these third-party sites. The Commission had determined that Google’s contractual clauses limited competition by restricting how these websites could display ads sold by Google’s competitors. However, as Reuters reported, the General Court found that the Commission made errors in assessing these contract clauses and decided to annul the fine.
Google had already made changes to its contracts in 2016, even before the Commission’s decision, removing the relevant provisions. The company expressed satisfaction with the court’s ruling, emphasizing that the case involved a narrow subset of text-only search ads on a limited number of publishers’ websites.
The European Commission stated that it would study the judgment and consider possible next steps, including a potential appeal to the European Court of Justice. This ruling represents a setback for the Commission in its efforts to regulate large tech companies and ensure competitive practices in the digital market.
Nonetheless, as The Wall Street Journal highlighted, this decision comes amid ongoing regulatory challenges for Google, which continues to face scrutiny over its advertising practices both in Europe and the United States.
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