Google, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), had its largest ever fine confirmed by a European court for thwarting competition today – though this is not the only lawsuit the online titan has been hit with.
Despite a challenge by the company against the fine by the European Commission's antitrust regulator over Google's anti-competitive behaviour, the fine was upheld but reduced modestly to €4.125bn from €4.34bn.
Still, it is the largest penalty ever for an antitrust violation.
The EC ruled that by pre-installing its Chrome search engine and apps on handsets as a condition for carrying its Google Play app store the company had been blocking competition.
"The general court largely confirms the Commission's decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine," the court said.
Google claimed that it was behaving like several other businesses and added that these payments and agreements are what keep Android a free operating system.
"We are disappointed that the court did not annul the decision in full. Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world," a Google spokesperson said.
The EU's antitrust enforcer has hit the company with roughly €8.25bn in fines from three investigations in recent times.
Other Google and Alphabet fines
Only this week, Google was slapped with damages claims for up to €25bn ($25.4 billion) over its digital advertising practices in two suits filed in British and Dutch courts by a law firm on behalf of publishers.
The British claim at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal will seek to recover compensation for lost revenue from the sale of advertising space on the websites of news publishers and any site funded by online advertising.
And today, South Korean authorities fined Google (and Facebook owner Meta Platforms) for privacy law violations.
Fining Google 69.2bn won (US$50mln) Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission said the two US tech companies did not receive legitimate consent in the process of collecting information from users who visit their websites and use other websites as well as apps for customized advertisements.
But the EU has been the biggest thorn in the company's side so far.
Last year, the world’s top internet search engine lost an appeal against a €2.42bn EU fine in relation to its shopping service, with the ruling stating that its search algorithm promoted Google’s own products on results pages and demoted links to rival or comparative shopping services.
The third fine issued by The European Commission was €1.49bn in March 2019 for abusive practices in online advertising.
Historically, before Brexit unfolded, any UK claims were dealt with by the EU’s regulators.
In the US, meanwhile, Google paid US$90mln earlier this year to settle a lawsuit with American developers following alleged anti-competitive behaviour.
In 2012, it paid US$22.5mln to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it misrepresented privacy guarantees to users of Apple’s Safari browser.