Google won a court case on Wednesday against a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) European Union antitrust fine imposed in 2019 that targeted its online advertising business. The EU’s General Court said it was throwing out the 2019 penalty imposed by the European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer.
Regulators had alleged that Google — as a dominant online ad broker — illegally prevented rivals such as Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. from placing ads on third-party websites.
“The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision in its entirety,” the court said in a press release. The commission’s ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google’s ad business: ads that the U.S. tech giant sold next to Google search results on third-party websites.
Regulators had accused Google of inserting exclusivity clauses in its contracts that barred these websites from running similarly placed ads sold by Google’s rivals. The commission said when it issued the penalty that Google’s behavior resulted in advertisers and website owners having less choice and likely facing higher prices that would be passed on to consumers.
But the General Court said the commission “committed errors” when it assessed those clauses. The commission failed to demonstrate that Google’s contracts deterred innovation, harmed consumers or helped the company hold on to and strengthen its dominant position in national online search advertising markets, it said.
This ruling can still be appealed at the bloc’s top tribunal, the Court of Justice.