Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday won a challenge to a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine imposed five years ago for hindering rivals in online search advertising, a week after losing a larger case.
The European Commission said in its 2019 ruling that Google abused its dominant position by preventing websites from using brokers other than its AdSense platform to serve search ads. The commission said the illegal practices took place between 2006 and 2016.
The Luxembourg-based General Court largely agreed with the EU competition enforcer’s assessment of the case but annulled the fine.
“The court (…) upheld most of the Commission’s assessments but quashed the decision to impose a fine of almost 1.5 billion euros on Google, mainly on the grounds that Google did not take into account all relevant circumstances when assessing the duration of the contract terms, which was therefore considered unfair,” the judges said.
The AdSense fine is one of three fines totaling €8.25 billion imposed on Google and was triggered by a complaint filed by Microsoft in 2010.
Google said it had changed its target contract in 2016, ahead of the commission’s decision.
Last week, the company lost a court battle over a €2.42 billion fine for using a price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.
The case is T-334/19 Google and Alphabet v. Commission (Google AdSense for Search).
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