The European Court left unchanged the multibillion-dollar fine for Google for antitrust violations
Google is obliged to pay a fine of 2.4 billion euros imposed by the European Commission back in 2017. The European Court in Luxembourg confirmed the decision of the court of previous instance — the European Court of General Jurisdiction, thus upholding the decision on the fine.
The penalty was introduced due to the abuse of Google’s dominant position in the search engine market. The company used its platform to artificially boost the positions of its own Google Shopping service in search results, giving it a significant advantage over competitors that were ranked lower. This negatively affected not only competitors, but also consumers. According to experts, users overpaid about 10% more due to the direction of more expensive offers. The amount of the fine will be transferred directly to the EU budget.
Albrecht von Sonntag, founder of the German price comparison platform idealo, in a comment for PICTURE noted that the main victims of such actions of Google are consumers. According to him, idealo plans to file a multibillion-dollar lawsuit for damages, claiming that Google willfully harmed their business
“Today’s ruling has legally confirmed that Google willfully harmed us. This is an excellent starting point for a lawsuit for compensation.”, – noted Sonntag.
