In a 2019 decision, the European Commission said Google, owned by Alphabet, had illegally abused its dominant position to block websites from using ad brokers other than Google's AdSense platform between 2006 and 2016.
The EU General Court, part of the European Court of Justice, largely agreed with the EU competition regulator's assessment of the case, but quashed the fine, saying the Commission had failed to take into account all relevant circumstances when assessing the duration of the contractual terms it found abusive.
Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Photo: GI
Google said the incident involved a small group of text-only search ads placed on some news publishers' websites.
“We made changes to our contract in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court recognized the errors in the original decision and overturned the fine,” Google said in an email.
The Commission, which can appeal to the European Court of Justice on points of law, said it would study the ruling and consider possible next steps.
The AdSense fine, one of three that totaled 8.25 billion euros ($9.18 billion) for Google, came after a complaint from Microsoft in 2010.
Meanwhile, US chipmaker Qualcomm was only able to convince the Court of First Instance to reduce the EU antitrust fine from 242 million euros to 238.7 million euros.
The commission imposed a fine on Qualcomm in 2019, saying the company sold its chipsets below cost between 2009 and 2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to block British phone software maker Icera, now part of Nvidia.
Ngoc Anh (according to CNN)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/google-tranh-duoc-khoan-tien-phat-doc-quyen-17-ty-usd-cua-eu-post313046.html
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