Google loses final appeal against EU’s record €4.1bn anti-trust fine

The Court of Justice of the European Union announced on Thursday that it had rejected the appeal brought by Google against a 2022 ruling by the EU's General Court, which upheld the bulk of the European Commission's case over the company's Android mobile operating system.

“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,” the Luxembourg-based court said.

The decision leaves in place the €4.1 billion penalty – still the largest anti-trust fine ever imposed by the EU – and brings to a close a case that has lasted eight years and become a landmark in Brussels' campaign to challenge the market power of major technology firms.

The European Commission originally fined Google more than €4.3bn in 2018, accusing the US company of using Android's dominance to cement the position of its search engine and browser. The EU's General Court largely backed the findings in 2022 but trimmed the penalty to €4.1bn.

The case was Google's second attempt to overturn the sanction.

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Android dominance

At the centre of the dispute was the role of Android, the mobile operating system used by many of the world's smartphone manufacturers.

The European Commission argued that Google abused Android's popularity by imposing restrictions on phone makers and mobile network operators. According to Brussels, the company pressured manufacturers using Android to pre-install Google Search and the Google Chrome browser, making it harder for rival search engines and browsers to compete.

Regulators said these practices helped Google protect and strengthen its dominant position in online search, while reducing choice for consumers and rivals in the mobile market.

Google challenged the case, arguing that the EU had misunderstood the competitive landscape and overlooked the role of Apple, which gives preference to its own services, including Safari, on iPhones.

The company also argued that Android users were not forced to use Google products and could easily download rival apps. It maintained that the EU's approach risked penalising innovation and the successful development of a mobile ecosystem used by manufacturers and consumers around the world.

The court's decision nevertheless confirms the EU's view that Google's conduct went beyond legitimate competition and amounted to an abuse of dominance.

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Wider EU push

The ruling is one of several major cases pitting Google against Brussels, which has made the regulation of large technology companies a central part of its competition and digital policy.

Between 2017 and 2019, the European Commission fined Google a total of €8.2bn over anti-trust violations, triggering years of legal battles. Thursday's judgment confirms the largest of those penalties and strengthens the EU's position as one of the world's most assertive regulators of digital markets.

Since the Android case began, Brussels has also armed itself with a more powerful legal tool – the Digital Markets Act. The DMA is designed to prevent abuses before they become entrenched, giving the largest online platforms a clear list of obligations and restrictions rather than relying only on traditional anti-trust investigations, which can take years.

Google is already the subject of several formal DMA probes. It was also hit in September with a separate €2.95bn fine in another competition case predating the digital law, after regulators said it had favoured its own advertising services.

The EU's tougher stance has drawn sharp criticism from Washington, particularly from United States President Donald Trump, who has accused Brussels of unfairly targeting American companies and has repeatedly threatened retaliatory tariffs on EU exports.

(with newswires)