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Google has succeed in revoke a $ 1.7 billion antimonopoly penalty handed down by the European Union back inMarch 2019 .
The € 1.49 billion mulct , whichGoogle appeal , was originally issued after the European Commission found the tech giant ’s hunting ads brokering business enterprise had infract competition rules between 2006 and 2016 to cement a dominant position .
On Wednesday , the EU ’s General Court upheld the majority of EU ’s findings , but reverse the other decision in its entireness after finding that the Commission had break down to take into consideration all the relevant circumstances when tax the continuance of the contract bridge clauses it deemed abusive .
The EU can attract the decision to the bloc ’s gamy court , the Court of Justice ( CJEU ) , on a point of law . But it has yet to reassert whether it will do so . Commission spokeswoman Lea Zuber told TechCrunch that it “ takes notation ” of the General Court judgement and tell it will analyse it “ cautiously ” and “ meditate on possible next steps . ”
The new decision comes after the axis clear a mates of major winnings at the CJEU , one of which touched another Google conclusion ( Google Shopping ) . The Commission also won the higher courtroom ’s backing for a high - jeopardy State attention case against Ireland ’s taxation breaks for Apple , confirming the technical school giant must devote some $ 15 billion in back revenue enhancement . So the EU may be feel emboldened to prove its chance at challenge this recent homage blow , specially as the General Court bear on most of its findings in the AdSense case .
arrive at for a reply to the General Court ’s opinion , Google spokesman Jay Stoll emailed a argument receive the judgement . “ This eccentric is about a very narrow subset of schoolbook - only hunting ads place on a limited number of newspaper publisher ’ websites , ” Google wrote . “ We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to off the relevant provisions , even before the Commission ’s determination . We are pleased that the court has recognised wrongdoing in the original decision and annulled the amercement . We will review the full conclusion closely . ”
The Commission has n’t stood still since the AdSense decision , as it has an ongoing investigation into Google ’s adtech stack , instigatedback in mid-2021 , that ’s look more broadly at its role in the adtech supply range of mountains .
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It remains to be seen whether that antimonopoly probe will lead to enforcement , but the Commission ’s rival chief previously discourage that if its concerns are substantiate , theonly viable curative may be to break away up Google ’s ad empire .
EU’s Qualcomm penalty largely upheld
In a freestanding opinion also issued on Wednesday , the General Court largely continue aJuly 2019 Commission antitrust penalty on Qualcommthat had fined the peregrine chipmaker € 242 million ( ~$271 million ) for predatory pricing of baseband micro chip .
Qualcomm petitioned the General Court to annul the fine entirely or considerably reduce it . The Court largely upheld the Commission ’s penalty , only slenderly revise the fine down to € 238.7 million .
The chipmaker had raise 15 supplication in law challenge the EU ’s penalization . The General Court rejected all of them except one concerning the fee calculation , which it accepted part , finding that the Commission “ set forth , without justification , from the methodological analysis laid down in its 2006 guidelines [ for calculating fee ] . ”
The ruling is potential to be a cock-a-hoop alleviation for the Commission , which had an early Qualcomm enforcement quashed by the General Courtin 2022 .
The legal avenue for Qualcomm to take exception the Court ’s latest ruling are limited to evoke a point of law with the CJEU .
