The European justice endorses the highest fine in history for Google for monopoly: €4.1 billion

BrusselsThe European judiciary has endorsed the European Commission's decision to fine Google with the largest penalty in the history of the European Union for violating EU antitrust legislation. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday rejected the American tech giant's appeal against Brussels' punishment and upheld the imposition of a fine of up to 4.1 billion euros, slightly lower than that initially applied by the European executive.

The European Commission began investigating Google in this case in 2015 and it was not until 2018 that it concluded that it forced smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its applications – such as Google Search or Google Chrome – to further strengthen its dominant position and prevent rivals from entering the sector. For this reason, the European executive imposed the economic penalty and ruled that this clause was "abusive." According to Brussels, at that time around 80% of mobile phones and tablets in the EU ran on Android.

Google and its parent company, Alphabet, denied the majority of the decision taken by the European Commission and appealed the case. However, the court of first instance of the European judiciary, the General Court of the EU, and the Advocate General of the CJEU had already sided with Brussels and rejected the arguments of the American company. Google and Alphabet, however, did not give up and took the case to the highest court, the CJEU, which definitively endorsed the penalty this Thursday.

Thus, the CJEU has ruled that there is a "bias" in requiring the pre-installation of some applications from the same company on Android mobile devices, without "this behavior" being based on "user preferences or the quality of services" offered by these platforms. "These practices may limit the commercial opportunities of non-compatible Android versions and reinforce Google's dominant position," states the verdict of the highest court in Luxembourg.

Trump's pressure

The backing of the EU Court of Justice to the historic fine by the European Commission on Google and Alphabet comes at a time when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is again pressuring the European club to reduce digital regulation, which particularly affects large North American and Chinese technology companies. Among other threats, the US leader threatens to increase tariffs against European member states, as he has promised to do on repeated occasions.

For the moment, however, the European Commission assures that the deregulation of the digital market in the European Union is not on the negotiation table and emphasizes that legislative power in the community bloc is the exclusive competence of European leaders. Furthermore, Brussels has not stopped applying sanctions and opening investigations against large US technology companies since Trump returned to the White House, and European justice has also not stopped backing fines against these multinationals.