Google Loses EU Top Court Fight Over €4.1 Billion Android Fine

Google lost its long-running fight against a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) European Union antitrust fine after the European Court of Justice said regulators were right to punish the company for abusing Android’s market power. The court ruled that Google’s earlier defeat against a European Commission penalty should stand. The decision is legally binding and marks a significant win for the Brussels-based regulator, which has been fighting Google through the EU’s courts since the fine was first leveled in 2018. The decision is a constraint on the Android business model — which has provided free software in exchange for conditions imposed on mobile phone manufacturers. Such contracts provoked the ire of the commission in 2018, when the watchdog accused Alphabet’s Google of three separate types of illegal behavior that helped cement the dominance of its search engine, accompanying the order with the then-record fine. The decision also paves the way for a wave of potential lawsuits from victims of Google’s behavior. Google said the ruling “fails to recognize our significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free. In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers.” FairSearch, a group of complainants that brought the case to the commission in 2013, called the ruling “an important victory in Europe’s highest court against Google’s anti-competitive conduct in mobile markets.”