Google loses appeal against EU’s €2.4B Shopping antitrust decision, as bloc also wins Apple state aid appeal

 

Google's attempt to reverse a 2017 European Commission antitrust ruling has failed once more. The bloc determined that Alphabet, the parent company of Google, had violated competition laws with its shopping comparison service. As a result, it fined the company a record-breaking €2.42 billion (about $2.7 billion at current exchange rates) and mandated changes to the way it runs the business.

After Google filed an appeal, the General Court of the European Union essentially rejected the case in November 2021. It affirmed the Commission's penalty and demonstrated that favoring its own shopping service above competitors' shopping comparison services in general search results was anti-competitive. That part of the verdict was annulled by the Court, who found that the Commission had not proven Google's actions may have had anticompetitive effects on the market for general search services as a whole.

Google filed a second appeal against the EU's decision with the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), the EU's highest court. On Tuesday, the CJEU issued a finding that will not be to Google's satisfaction.

The analysis of the General Court was accepted by the CJEU. "Google's conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of competition on the merits," the court stated in a news statement, taking into account the features of the market and the particulars of the case.

When contacted for comment, Google spokesperson Rory O'Donoghue sent an email expressing the company's dissatisfaction with the decision. "We are not happy with the court's ruling. This ruling is based on a very particular combination of circumstances. In order to abide by the ruling of the European Commission, we made adjustments back in 2017. Over the course of more than seven years, our strategy has produced billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping firms.

Google's appeal against the Shopping ruling may now be on hold as it may merely aim to raise a legal argument against the CJEU.

The internet behemoth has appealed multiple prior antitrust rulings from the Commission. It lost a significant appeal once more in September 2022 when the EU General Court mainly upheld the EU's €4.34 billion antitrust penalties pertaining to the way the tech giant runs its Android mobile platform.

CJEU: Apple owes $15B in Irish back taxes & fees

In unrelated CJEU news, the Court ruled in favor of the Commission again on Tuesday. This one involves Apple since it relates to a 2016 ruling by the bloc that stated Apple should have paid billions more in taxes since it profited from unlawful tax advantages in Ireland from 1991 to 2014. The iPhone manufacturer was required Apple send the EU $15 billion in overdue taxes and penalties by September 2018. Nonetheless, Apple (as well as Ireland) prevailed in an appeal against the General Court in July 2020. It overturned the EU's ruling.

Following an appeal by the Commission, the CJEU overturned the General Court's decision on Tuesday, concluding that Ireland had given Apple illegal help that it must now reimburse.


Only a legal point may be raised in an appeal of the CJEU ruling by Apple and Ireland.

Apple spokesperson Tom Parker sent TechCrunch the following statement when he was contacted for comment on the State Aid ruling: "This case has never been about how much tax we pay, but which government we are required to pay it to." Wherever we operate, we always pay all the taxes we due and there has never been a special offer. Being one of the biggest taxpayers in the world and a catalyst for innovation and progress in Europe and beyond makes Apple proud. The European Commission is attempting to amend the regulations retroactively and is ignoring the fact that our revenue was already subject to US taxes, as required by international tax law. We are dissatisfied with the ruling made today because the General Court had already examined the evidence and declared the matter to be officially dismissed.

The press section of the bloc refrained from making any comments prior to the press conference on both rulings that the head of the Commission's competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, is scheduled to hold later today.