Google must pay $2.8 billion fine, rules court

The EU’s General Court today ruled that the European Commission was right in fining Google for an antirust breach.

The ruling comes after the European Commission said in 2017 that Google had favoured its own comparison shopping services and fined the company 2.42 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for breaching antitrust rules.

Alphabet-unit Google contested the claims using the EU’s second-highest court.

“The General Court finds that, by favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms, Google departed from competition on the merits,” the court said in a press release Wednesday.

“The General Court concludes its analysis by finding that the amount of the pecuniary penalty imposed on Google must be confirmed,” the court added.