Alphabet’s tech giant Google has launched a last-ditch effort to challenge a hefty €2.42 billion ($2.6 billion) antitrust fine imposed by the European Union (EU) for alleged market abuse related to its shopping service. Google contends that regulators have failed to demonstrate that its practices constituted anti-competitive behavior.
This move comes after Google’s initial challenge to the fine, issued by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in 2017, was dismissed by the General Court in 2021. This €2.42 billion fine was the first of three penalties imposed on Google for anti-competitive practices, resulting in a staggering total of €8.25 billion in fines over the last decade.
Google’s defense argues that the European Commission has not adequately proven that the company’s differential treatment of competitors was abusive. They emphasize that differential treatment is not inherently anti-competitive.
Thomas Graf, Google’s legal representative, stated, “Companies do not compete by treating competitors equally with themselves. They compete by treating them differently. The whole point of competition is for a company to differentiate itself from rivals. Not to align with rivals so that all are the same.” He presented this argument before a panel of 15 judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Graf further added, “Qualifying every different treatment, and in particular different treatment of first-party and third-party businesses, as abusive would undermine competition. It would impair the ability and incentives of companies to compete and innovate.”
However, the Commission’s lawyer, Fernando Castillo de la Torre, rejected Google’s assertions. He contended that Google had misused its algorithms to favor its price comparison shopping service unfairly, thereby violating EU antitrust laws. He stated, “Google was entitled to apply algorithms that lower the visibility of certain results which were less relevant for a user query.”
Castillo de la Torre also emphasized, “What Google was not entitled to do was to use its dominance in general search in order to extend its position over comparison shopping by promoting results of its own services, and embellishing them with attractive features and apply algorithms that are prone to pushing down the results of rivals and showing those results without attractive features.”
The CJEU is expected to render a decision on this matter in the coming months. While this case and two others involving Google’s Android mobile operating system and AdSense advertising service are significant, they pale in comparison to the ongoing EU antitrust investigation into Google’s lucrative digital advertising business. In June, regulators threatened to break up the company over alleged anti-competitive practices.