EC accuses Google of favoring its own services
In June 2017, the European Commission stated that in the European market, Google favored the results of its own product comparison tool on its own general search results page compared to the results of competing online price comparison sites.
Google presented search results for its product comparison tool first and highlighted them in “boxes” accompanied by eye-catching visual and textual information, while search results for competing comparison tools appeared only as generic results, visible as blue links.
EU court upholds Google fine
The EC found that the Google search engine had abused its dominant position and imposed a fine of €2.4 billion on the company. Google appealed the EC decision to the General Court of the European Union. In a judgment in November 2021, the Court dismissed the complaint and upheld the fine.
Google then filed an appeal with the CJEU, seeking to set aside the judgment of the General Court of the EU and to annul the EC decision. However, in its judgment issued on Tuesday, the Court dismissed the appeal and thus upheld the judgment of the General Court of the EU.
CJEU rejects Google’s appeal
The Court emphasised in its ruling that conduct by undertakings in a dominant position that restricts non-price competition and may thus harm individual undertakings and consumers is prohibited on the EU market. This includes conduct that, by means other than non-price competition, hinders the maintenance or development of competition in a market where competition is already weakened precisely because of the presence of one or more undertakings in a dominant position.
The CJEU found that the General Court correctly found that, in view of the characteristics of the market and the specific circumstances of the case, Google’s conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of non-price competition.
From Brussels Łukasz Osiński (PAP)
