EU’s Top Court Upholds €4.1 Billion Fine on Google Over Android Antitrust Abuses

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by Google against a €4.1 billion antitrust fine, confirming the penalty imposed on the company for using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. The ruling ends an eight-year legal battle since the European Commission first fined Google in 2018.

The European Commission had originally imposed a €4.34 billion fine on Google for exclusivity agreements that required phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search, Google Chrome and Google Play, and prevented them from using competing apps by default. In 2022, a lower tribunal, the General Court, reduced the fine to €4.1 billion. Google appealed to the CJEU, which has now sided with the Commission. The judges stated that “the appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet… is dismissed,” confirming the penalty for “Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system.”

The Commission’s case argued that Google used pre-installation agreements to lock in its own apps and shut competitors out of the Android ecosystem. A Google spokesperson said the judgment failed to consider the company’s investment to keep Android “open, interoperable and free,” and noted that Google had “adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018.”

Over the last decade, Google has accumulated about €11 billion in EU fines for various antitrust infringements. The company has also faced separate antitrust fines for the 15-30% commissions it collects on in-app purchases and subscriptions. These have led to some changes, including alternative payment methods with lower or zero commissions in parts of the world.

The EU penalty has an equivalent in India. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in 2022 imposed a penalty of ₹1,337.76 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position across the Android mobile device ecosystem, an order that closely followed the EC’s findings. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in March 2023 upheld the penalty but set aside four of the ten non-penalty interventions. Google has since appealed to the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending.

While the European fine amounts to less than 3% of Google’s annual profit, the outcome may encourage other firms to pursue litigation in that jurisdiction with a firmer footing, and could lead to the company’s penalty bill increasing. The ruling reinforces the EU’s stance against big tech monopolistic practices and is seen as a landmark decision in antitrust enforcement.