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The European Union's top court has permanently upheld a 4.1 billion euro ($4.5 billion) antitrust fine against Google, closing out a seven year legal fight over how the company used its Android operating system to box out rivals. The European Court of Justice ruling means Google has exhausted its appeals and the penalty now stands for good.
At a Glance
- The European Court of Justice rejected Google and Alphabet's final appeal on Thursday.
- The fine, originally announced by the European Commission in 2018, totals 4.1 billion euros, about $4.5 billion.
- Regulators found Google abused its dominant position tied to Android in the mobile search market.
- It is one of three EU antitrust fines against Google since 2017 that together exceed $8 billion.
- Consumer advocacy group BEUC called the outcome a win for shoppers and competition across the bloc.
What the Court Actually Decided
The judges in Luxembourg confirmed the earlier General Court judgment, finding that Google Search abused its dominant market position through the way it structured agreements around Android. Regulators had determined that Google's practices squeezed out rivals and narrowed the choices available to phone makers and, ultimately, to everyday users searching the web on their phones.
Google had leaned on a familiar defense throughout the case: that giving away Android for free, and keeping it open source, actually lowered costs for phone manufacturers and helped create cheaper handsets that could compete against Apple's iPhones. Android remains the world's most widely used mobile operating system, with a larger global footprint than Apple's iOS. That argument did not move the court.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Brussels
This case is one leg of a three part crackdown the European Commission launched against Google between 2017 and 2019, with combined penalties topping $8 billion. Those actions placed the 27 nation bloc at the front of a global effort to police the market power of large technology firms, well before similar scrutiny ramped up elsewhere.
Brussels hasn't slowed down since. The commission has opened additional antitrust probes touching Amazon, Apple and Facebook, and it has rolled out broader rules, including the Digital Markets Act, designed to keep the largest digital platforms from squeezing out smaller competitors before they even get a foothold.
How Consumer Groups Are Reacting
Agustín Reyna, director general of the European Consumer Organization (known by its French acronym BEUC), praised the ruling as confirmation that size alone doesn't give a company license to push out challengers. He argued the bloc still needs rules along the lines of the Digital Markets Act to catch unfair conduct early, before it can do lasting damage to competition.
