Europe's second-highest court ruled in favor of Google on Wednesday, overturning a €1.49 billion antitrust fine the European Commission imposed in 2019.
The General Court said it recognized most of the Commission's views. However, the court also noted that the decision had failed to consider "all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses that it had found to be unfair." This ruling is part of a series of EU penalties that have cost Google over €8 billion in total.
In 2019, the Commission fined Google €1.49 billion for violating EU antitrust rules. At the time, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the company had abused its dominant market position by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites.
