Google fined 2 trillion won for 'antitrust penalty' canceled by court

EU Court: "Error in the 2019 Fine Imposition Process"

The European Union (EU) has annulled the antitrust fine of 1.49 billion euros (approximately 2.2 trillion KRW) imposed on the US big tech company Google in 2019 by the EU General Court.

According to AFP and other sources on the 18th, the EU General Court announced in a statement that the EU Commission made errors during the investigation and fine imposition process, and therefore the fine imposition decision has been canceled.

Google

In 2019, the EU Commission fined Google for abusing its dominant market position in the online advertising market through its 'AdSense' business division. The Commission judged that Google placed exclusive clauses in contracts with third-party websites that displayed Google search results with ads, preventing competitors' ads from being placed. Google contested this and filed a lawsuit.

The EU General Court pointed out that "the Commission failed to consider all relevant circumstances when assessing the continuity of the contract clauses deemed abusive." The court ruled that the Commission did not prove that Google's contracts blocked innovation or harmed consumers, nor that they helped maintain or strengthen Google's dominant position in the search advertising market.

The EU Commission stated, "We will carefully review the judgment and reflect it in our next steps."

Google said it had changed the related advertising services before the EU fine was imposed in 2016 and expressed, "We are pleased that the court recognized the Commission's errors and canceled the fine."

This ruling can be appealed to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest court of the EU.

Regulatory authorities in the US and Europe have been strengthening crackdowns on big tech monopolies and privacy issues. At the time the canceled fine was imposed, the EU had fined Google several times for antitrust violations. In 2018, Google was fined 4.34 billion euros (approximately 5.8 trillion KRW) for abusing its market dominance with the Android smartphone operating system (OS). In 2017, Google was fined 2.42 billion euros (approximately 3.6 trillion KRW) for prioritizing its own comparison shopping service in search results.

On the 10th of this month, the ECJ ruled in favor of the 2017 decision by the EU Commission.