Google loses appeal over record fine

The European Union's top court dismissed an appeal on Thursday from the United States technology company Google against a 4.34-billion-euro ($4.95 billion) antitrust fine, setting up a likely protracted dispute between Brussels and Washington.

The decision not to overturn the record-breaking fine that EU regulators imposed eight years ago for Google's use of its Android mobile operating system to block rivals means the US could now respond with heavy financial penalties of its own. US President Donald Trump threatened last week to impose 100 percent tariffs on the bloc if such fines were levied against US technology giants.

The 4.34-billion-euro fine was reduced by a tribunal in 2022 to 4.1 billion euros, but will not be changed further, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union said.

"The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search's abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system," the ruling said.

Reuters said the ruling will strengthen the EU's arm in its ongoing crackdown against US Big Tech companies for what the bloc sees as unfair antitrust practices.

A Google spokesperson responded that the company has made changes since the 2018 ruling, but those changes were not taken into account.

Thursday's ruling followed a separate decision on Wednesday by a court in Sweden against Google, which ordered the company to pay around $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, a price comparison site owned by the payments platform Klarna. The court said Google had unfairly selected its own shopping services in search results over PriceRunner.

Long-running disputes

The disputes are examples of several that have flared during the past decade between the EU and Google, with the company currently facing around 11 billion euros in EU fines, largely for favoring its services and products in its search results.

Trump has accused the bloc and its Digital Markets Act legislation of unfairly penalizing US companies and vowed retaliation, saying on his Truth Social platform, "numerous European countries" had been discussing ways to restrict US Big Tech, such as through levies and fines, and that he was considering tariffs that would "supersede" any existing bilateral trade agreements.

"Please let this statement serve to represent that any Country that imposes such a Tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America," he wrote, using his unusual heavy use of capital letters.

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