Europe’s highest court has upheld a €4.1 billion ($4.67 billion) fine against Google for antitrust violations linked to its Android operating system. The Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed an appeal from Google and its parent company Alphabet concerning the judgment of the General Court.
The fine, originally imposed in 2018, was in response to the EU Commission’s charge that Google forced mobile network operators to pre-install Chrome and other Google apps as the default or exclusive search services on devices sold in Europe. Google commanded over 80 percent market share in several European countries, effectively establishing a monopoly in the search market.
The EU Commission initially set the fine at €4.34 billion, later reduced to $4.13 billion, considering the severity and duration of the infringement. The calculation was based on Google’s revenue from search advertising on Android within the European Economic Area. Google was mandated to cease its illegal practices within 90 days of the ruling.
The Court of Justice affirmed that the General Court correctly assessed the anticompetitive effects of the Android agreements and validated the fine’s rationale. It noted that the original court did not err in law regarding the legality of Google’s pre-installation terms.
Anticipation of a ruling against Google grew a year prior, when the advocate general of the European Court of Justice recommended dismissal of the appeal. In addition to this case, Google faced a €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) fine in 2017 regarding its shopping search monopoly, a case in which it lost its final appeal in 2024.
Google remains under scrutiny by the EU under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), facing accusations of favoring its own search services and restricting app developers from guiding users to alternative payment options outside the Play Store. The company is also being investigated for potentially unfairly demoting certain news results in its search outcomes.
