Google has lost again in its attempt to overturn a European Commission antitrust decision from 2017. The bloc decided that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, had broken competition rules with its shopping comparison service. They fined Alphabet a record-breaking €2.42 billion, which is about $2.7 billion today, and told it to change how it runs the service.
Google made an appeal, but in November 2021, the General Court of the European Union mostly threw out the case. It confirmed that putting its own shopping service at the top of general search results was unfair and hurt competitive shopping comparison services. It also upheld the Commission’s punishment. The Court did say that the Commission had not proven that Google’s actions could have hurt competition in the market for general search services as a whole, so that part of the finding was thrown out.
After the first appeal, Google asked the EU’s top court, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), to review the case again. On Tuesday, the CJEU made another decision that Google will not like.
The CJEU agreed with what the General Court said. In a press statement, the court said, “…given the features of the market and the unique facts of this case, Google’s actions were unfair and did not conform to the spirit of competition on the facts.”
At a press conference this morning local time, Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, talked about the Google Shopping case. She called it “a landmark in the history of regulatory actions against Big Tech companies.” “It was one of the first big antitrust cases brought by a competition agency against a big digital company,” she said. “I think this case was a turning point in how digital companies were regulated and how people thought about them.”
She went on to say this about the CJEU decision: “The Court of Justice confirms that, in some situations, a dominant company doing something nice for its own services can be a breach of Article 9(2) of the European treaty.” This important decision backs up how the Commission handles these kinds of tactics.
The term for them is “self preferencing.” Of course, a powerful company can come up with new ideas in any area, just like any other company. But when they do, they should compete based on how well their new ideas work. But they can’t use the fact that they have an economic edge because they have too much market power.
The Commission will, of course, make sure that the principle set out in this final judgement is supported going forward, which will be good for all European consumers, she said.
When asked for a comment on the CJEU decision, Google spokesman Rory O’Donoghue sent an email with a company statement that said the company was disappointed. “We are unhappy with the Court’s decision.” This decision is based on a very unique set of facts. We made changes in 2017 to follow the order from the European Commission. For more than seven years, our method has worked well, sending billions of clicks to more than 800 comparison shopping sites.
This could be the last chance for Google to review the Shopping decision, since it may only want to take the CJEU to court over a point of law.
The tech giant has also made several other cases against other antitrust decisions made by the Commission. It lost another big appeal in September 2022 when the EU’s General Court mostly upheld the EU’s €4.34 billion antitrust fine for how the tech giant runs its Android mobile platform.
Apple Pays $15 Billion In Back Taxes And Fees To Ireland, According To The CJEU
Also on Tuesday, the CJEU made another important ruling in favour of the Commission.
In 2016, the bloc decided that Apple got illegal tax breaks in Ireland from 1991 to 2014 and should have paid billions more in taxes. This case involves Apple because it has to do with that decision. By September 2018, the company that made the iPhone had to send $15 billion to the EU in back taxes and fines. This money would be held in escrow until any court challenges were over. The EU’s ruling was overturned by the General Court in July 2020, which was good news for Apple and Ireland.
The Commission appealed that decision, and on Tuesday, the CJEU overturned the General Court’s decision, saying that Ireland had given Apple illegal help that the country needs to pay back.
Ireland and Apple can only appeal the CJEU’s ruling on a legal point.
Tom Parker, an Apple spokesman, emailed TechCrunch a statement about the State Aid decision. In it, the company says it is disappointed and wants to make the case not about unpaid taxes but about where taxes are paid. The tech giant also says the EU wants to “change the rules from the past.”
It said, “This case has never been about how much tax we pay; it’s always been about which government we have to pay it to.” “Wherever we do business, we always pay all the taxes we owe; there has never been a deal.” Around the world and in Europe, Apple is happy to be a source of growth and new ideas. The company is also one of the biggest taxpayers in the world. The European Commission wants to change the rules from the past, but they are ignoring the fact that our income was already taxed in the US because that’s what international tax law says must happen. We are disappointed with today’s ruling because the General Court had already looked at the facts and thrown out this case for good.
Vestager, who is in charge of competition at the Commission, said she was both happy and shocked by the win. She said the EU had taken legal risks by appealing, which was a big deal.
“I was ready for a stiff upper lip because I knew I might lose,” she said. “But, you know, I cried because I won.” Since it’s important. It’s important to show people in Europe that tax justice can be done sometimes.
In the news conference, Vestager was asked if she wanted to send a message to Big Tech after the two decisions. She said, “Today, the real messenger is the Court of Justice, confirming what we did, which was questioned.”
“The message from the choices we’ve made is that when we think we have a case to make, we will keep going,” she said. “I believe the message is that we will keep doing this.” We will keep pushing so that when we see misuse of power, we will go after them.
“I hope that the reading of today’s decision is also one that says maybe it’s better for a company to follow the rules?”
“Because one thing I’ve been wondering all these years is why I haven’t just had one Google case, two, three, and now the fourth.” We have cases that keep coming up with Amazon. We now have a case going on with Facebook. They are one of the most admired, amazing, and valuable companies in the world, and they are also my most loyal clients.
“So if there is a message, it’s easier and better to follow it, and it also forces you to be more creative than you would have been otherwise.”
Also Read: Google Loses a Huge Antitrust Fight Over Search, but They Will Appeal the Decision
Google’s comments and Vestager’s comments at the Commission’s press conference were added to this story.
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