The European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down a ruling on Thursday imposing a fine of approximately €4.1 billion on Google for abusing its dominant position in relation to the Android operating system.
In 2018, the European Commission found Google guilty of monopolistically promoting its services through the Android platform, which it controls. The company was found guilty of requiring smartphone manufacturers to integrate Google Search and the Chrome browser into the user interface of mobile devices.
The court ruled that the imposition of sanctions against the US tech giant’s anti-competitive practices was justified, imposing a fine of 4.125 billion euros. Of this amount, more than 1.52 billion euros is attributable to the parent company, Alphabet.
The regulator came to the conclusion that these restrictive measures were implemented to protect and strengthen Google’s position in the global internet search market. In this way, the US corporation sought to ensure steady growth in its own revenue, generated through search advertising.
The court also ruled that Google’s “anti-fragmentation” agreements on the grounds that they restricted competition, as they prevented partners from selling devices running third-party versions of Android not approved by the corporation.
Google and Alphabet, for their part, argued that user preferences or the alleged quality of their services could, in themselves, justify such business practices. However, this argument was rejected by the EСJ.
