Luxembourg, November 10 (BNA) US tech giant Google plans to know the outcome of an appeal against a competition fine in the European Union for pressuring rival shopping services on its search engine in the bloc’s second highest court.
After years of investigation, the European Union’s executive branch, which acts as the union’s competition watchdog, concluded in 2017 that Google had systematically given preferential placement to its shopping service and lowered the ranking of competitors in search results, according to the German news agency (dpa). .a).
The decision came with a fine of 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion), the first of three antitrust sanctions the European Commission has imposed on Google in recent years, totaling more than 8 billion euros.
Google complied with the decision and changed the way its shopping services operate, but it has appealed the fine in the General Court of the European Union, which will issue its ruling on Wednesday. The company said when it appealed the decision that the fine was “wrong in terms of law, facts and economics”.
The victory of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager would bring new impetus to its attempts to regulate Google’s activities in the European Union’s single market.
The commission opened proceedings in this case in November 2010, after a number of complaints by European and US competitors that Google had violated EU antitrust rules.
Wednesday’s decision can still be appealed to the European Court of Justice, the bloc’s highest court.
FKN