GoKawiilCourt of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has dismissed Google's final appeal against a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) antitrust fine over the company's use of Android to promote its Chrome browser and search service.
This is the conclusion of a European Commission decision in 2018 that Google abused its dominant market position by using Android agreements to promote its products.
Back then, the Commission highlighted the following practices that were deemed illegal:
Requiring device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome in order to license the Play Store. Requiring manufacturers not to sell devices running Android versions not approved by Google (anti-fragmentation agreements) Offering revenue-sharing agreements tied to the exclusive pre-installation of Google Search.
In 2022, the General Court partially annulled the Commission's findings regarding some revenue-sharing agreements, reducing the original fine from €4.34 billion to €4.125 billion, while upholding the rest of the Commission's decision.
Following an appeal, the case was referred to the CJEU, which has now affirmed the lower court's ruling [PDF].
Specifically, the CJEU found that the General Court correctly assessed the anti-competitive effects of Google's Android agreements, was not required to perform a counterfactual analysis in every instance to establish abuse of dominance, and correctly concluded that pre-installation and anti-fragmentation agreements restricted competition within the Android ecosystem and strengthened Google's dominant position.
Google’s response
Google responded to this development with a press release shared with the media, which highlights that Android promotes customer choice, remains an open platform, is interoperable, and is free.
Google argues that the Commission's decision does not reflect the realities of today's mobile ecosystem and stresses that the case is based on past market conditions.
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