Google lost its appeal at the Court of Justice of the European Union, which dismissed the challenge to a €4.1 billion antitrust fine.
The penalty traces back to a 2018 European Commission decision that originally fined Google €4.34 billion for agreements that forced phone makers to pre-install Google Search, the Chrome browser and the Google Play store and blocked rival Android systems, with a lower tribunal trimming the sanction to €4.1 billion in 2022.
“The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the judgment of the General Court is dismissed, thereby confirming the penalty imposed for Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system,” judges said.
A Google spokesperson said the judgment failed to take into account its investment to keep Android open, interoperable and free and added that the company had adapted its agreements to comply with the 2018 decision while remaining focused on innovation and openness for users, partners and developers.
Google has accumulated close to €11 billion in EU fines over recent decades.
The company faces potential further penalties for allegedly favouring its own services in search results and for app-store practices that fall under the Digital Markets Act.
