Google’s €2.4 billion fine upheld

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Lerato Khumalo

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the European Union (EU) Commission’s fine of 2.4 billion euros imposed on technology firm Google for violating the rules of comparison strategy in its shopping service was appropriate.

The European Court of Justice, the highest legal authority in the EU and headquartered in Luxembourg, announced its decision in the case filed by Google and Alphabet against the EU Commission’s fine.

Accordingly, the court rejected the objection of Google and Alphabet and approved the fine of 2.4 billion euros imposed on the company for abusing its dominant position by granting privileges to its own comparison shopping service.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Google’s promotion of its own shopping search results over rival services is discriminatory.

The EU has launched an investigation into Google over claims that it was giving its own shopping services an advantage through its search engine.

In 2017, the EU Commission imposed a €2.4 billion fine on Google for abusing its market dominance as a search engine and demanded that the search engine treat its competitors equally in its shopping service.

Google has initiated legal proceedings against the fine. The company argues that the EU fine is wrong in terms of law, quality and economy.

The EU General Court has ruled on the lawsuit filed by US-based Google against the fine imposed by the EU Commission, and approved the 2.4 billion euro fine imposed on the company.

Google took this file to the highest court, the European Court of Justice.