The Google app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13 2021. REUTERS/DADO RUVIC
The shopping case was the first of three decisions that saw Google rack up €8.25bn in EU antitrust fines in the past decade. “The General Court largely dismisses Google’s action against the decision of the commission finding that Google abused its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services,” the court said.
Google said it would review the judgment and that it has already complied with the commission’s order to ensure a level playing field for rivals. It did not say if it would appeal to the EU Court of Justice, Europe’s top court.“The commission will continue to use all tools at its disposal to address the role of big digital platforms on which businesses and users depend to, respectively, access end users and access digital services,” the EU executive said in a statement.
Lawmaker Rasmus Andresen at the European parliament, which wants to beef up tech rules proposed by Vestager, said Europe needs both antitrust enforcement and legislation to tame US tech giants.