In 2018, the European Union had inflicted a penalty of 4.3 billion euros on the company of Silicon Valley for having abused the dominant position of its Android operating system.
Le Monde with AFP
The American company Google failed, Wednesday, September 14, to cancel a record fine of 4.3 billion euros inflicted in 2018 by the European Union (EU) for having abused the dominant position of its system Android exploitation, according to a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
“The appeal introduced by Google is essentially rejected,” writes the jurisdiction. However, it considers “appropriate” to reduce the amount of the sanction to 4.1 billion euros, in order to better take into account the severity and duration of the offense. This is a judgment rendered at first instance and likely to appeal within two months. In a press release, Google said it was “disappointed” by this decision, adding that “Android has created more choices for all (…) and supports thousands of companies in Europe and in the world”.
Brussels notably criticizes Google for having forced manufacturers of phones and tablets using its operating system to preinstall its search engine and its browser (chrome) to eliminate competitors. The Android system is used on approximately 80 % of mobile devices worldwide.
“The court confirms to a large extent the decision of the commission according to which Google imposed illegal restrictions on manufacturers of mobile devices and operators of mobile network, in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine”, Details the court in a press release .
The Californian group judges the unfounded accusation. He had seized European justice to demand the cancellation of the fine, the highest ever decided by the Competition Authority in Brussels (even after the reduction proposed by the Court).
Google believes that the EU wrongly ignored the competitor Apple, who favors his own services on his iPhone, such as the Safari browser. “The Commission closed the real competitive dynamics of this sector, the one who opposes Apple and Android,” said the group’s lawyer during a hearing last year. Google stressed that downloading competing applications was accessible with a single click and that customers were in no way forced to use its products on Android.
Three litigation against Google
The decision on Wednesday should not, however, close this dispute started in 2015 by the opening of a European Commission procedure, after several complaints of competitors. Google has the possibility of using an appeal.
The case constitutes one of the three major disputes open by Brussels against Google, whose practices are also disputed in the United States and Asia.
In 2017, the Commission had inflicted a fine of 2.4 billion euros on Google for anti -competitive practices on the price of price comparators. This fine had been confirmed in November 2021. Google had then announced that it appealed.
In 2019, the European executive had still claimed 1.5 billion euros from Google for competition offenses attributed to its advertising management, adsense.
On the other hand, European justice had canceled in June a fine of almost 1 billion euros against the equipment supplier in mobile phone Qualcomm, after having already canceled in January a sanction of 1.06 billion euros against the Intel.
Frustrated by endless procedures against digital giants, the EU has designed new legislation to stop the dominant position abuses of the Silicon Valley giants. The regulations of digital markets (Digital Markets Act, DMA), which is to come into force next year, will impose a series of groups and prohibitions on groups like Google, Apple, Meta (Facebook) and Amazon on advance. It aims to act before abusive behaviors have destroyed competition.