EU Court Overturns $1.7B Fine Against Google

Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google scored a legal victory after the European Union (EU) General Court overturned a fine of almost 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) imposed in 2019 alleging the search giant abused its dominant position and restricted competitor advertising.

The ruling states that the European Commission “committed errors in its assessment” of the duration of Google’s advertising contracts with publishers. It comes days after the tech firm lost an appeal of a $2.7 billion antitrust fine for favoring Google’s shopping services over its competitors.

Google Says Changes Made Before EU’s 2019 Decision

“This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ websites,” Google told Investopedia in response to a request for comment.

“We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely,” said Google.

In 2022, the EU signed the Digital Markets Act which aims to keep big technology companies in check and ensure more competition and innovation, better quality, and lower prices. March 6, 2024 marked the compliance deadline for regulated entities.

Alphabet shares were down 0.4% midday and are up close to 15% this year.