Google wins apppeal against EU's €1.5B fine from 2019

Google oveturned a €1.5 billion (about $1.7 billion at today's rate) penalty by the European Union, issued back in March 2019. The fine was originally handed down after the search engine was found brokering deals that violated competition rules between 2006 and 2016.

Sources said the EU can appeal the General Court's decision to the bloc's highest court, the Court of Justice (CJEU), but it has yet to confirm whether it will do so.

The original case against Google was the US company set too restrictive clauses for AdSense partners, “cementing its dominant position”. AdSense for Search is a Google search box on a client's website, and when visitors use it, Google splits the commission from the ad revenue.

The total sum of the fine was €1,494,459,000, or 1.29% of the company revenue for 2018. While this fine was overturned, Google did not win the appeal of the 2017 fine of €2.42 billion for misusing its dominant position with Google Shopping or the €4.3 billion slap from the summer of 2018 for forcing manufacturers to use Chrome to have access to Google Play.

A separate ruling from the General Court upheld a €242 million fine ($271 million) against Qualcomm. The US-based chipmaker was found guilty in using predatory pricing of baseband chips to European clients. Most pleas of laws were rejected, and only the way the fine was calculated was overturned but the San Diego company still has to pay.

Via