The European Court of Justice ruled this morning in the case brought by Google against the 2.42 billion euros fine imposed on the tech company by the European Commission. The Commission fined Google for abuse of market power.
The ruling of the highest European court proves that competition law is not dead and at the same time is a great encouragement for our work on the Digital Markets Act. We must not only correct market power but also prevent it.
We must not only correct market power but also prevent it.
In 2009, several European price comparators filed complaints with the European Commission that Google was favouring its own service ‘Google Shopping’ by giving it better visibility in its dominant search engine, while placing competitors on the fourth page. After years of negotiations and promises of improvement, in June 2017 European Commissioner Vestager gave the US company its highest fine ever. Since then, Google has been challenging this fine. The fine is nonetheless chump change compared to Google’s annual profit of 156 billion euros.
The fine of 2.42 billion euros is peanuts compared to Google’s annual profit of 156 billion euros.
Paul Tang is one of the negotiators on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on behalf of the European Parliament. The DMA aims to tackle the monopoly position of the very largest tech companies. At the moment, the preparation of the negotiations is in its final stage. It is expected that this law, which, among other things, tackles the predatory behaviour shown by Google, will enter into force in early 2023.
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