Google Appeals EU Antitrust Ruling on Advertising

Google this week appealed a March EU antitrust ruling in which it was found to have abused its market power in online advertising. The firm hasn’t issued an announcement about the appeal, which was reported first by the UK publication The Telegraph. But it has confirmed the action without commenting further.

As for the EU, a European Commission spokesperson said simply, “the Commission will defend its decision in Court.”

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As you may recall, Google has suffered three consecutive defeats at the hands of EU regulators, and it has now launched appeals of all three.

Google was first found to have unfairly favored its own shopping services over those of rivals in Search results and was fined $2.85 billion. Then, the EC found that Google illegally undercut rivals with Android and fined the firm $5.1 billion, a record. The advertising case that Google is now appealing resulted in a $1.69 billion fine.

“Google is fined €1,49 billion for illegal practices in search advertising brokering to cement its dominant market position,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced at the time. “They shouldn’t do that – it denied consumers choice, innovative products, and fair prices.”

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Conversation 6 comments

  • RobertJasiek

    06 June, 2019 - 3:01 am

    <p>Of course they appeal. Nobody pays billions without clarification in courts. They will lose the appeals but it will be interesting to see whether the courts confirm or modify the sizes of the fines. There is no doubt that Google is guilty of the charges under EU laws.</p>

    • MikeGalos

      06 June, 2019 - 4:28 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#433554">In reply to RobertJasiek:</a></em></blockquote><p>And unless the fines increase significantly over time the interest on the money will more than pay the costs of Alphabet/Google's in house legal team's expenses of the appeal.</p>

  • dontbe evil

    06 June, 2019 - 4:25 am

    <p>nice try… time to pay the bill</p>

  • PeterC

    06 June, 2019 - 5:04 am

    <p>Whether it’s from the US, the EU or both acting in tandem, google will not be allowed to hold all these businesses as they are, or rather in the anti competitive way they do currently. They will be compelled to “spin off” or sell certain business offerings by competition committees. Which ones though?</p>

  • shmuelie

    Premium Member
    06 June, 2019 - 8:29 am

    <p>What's cheaper, to spend the money on trying to appeal (and possibly having to still pay) or just paying the fine?</p>

    • garethb

      Premium Member
      06 June, 2019 - 8:33 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#433593">In reply to Shmuelie:</a></em></blockquote><p>If they don't appeal (and win), they'll also have to change their business practices.</p><p><br></p><p>As Microsoft demonstrated, they'll take on a while pile of pain just so they can keep doing business how they want.</p>

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