The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has upheld the penalty that the European Commission imposed in 2018 on Google for anti-competitive practices in the field of mobile operating systems, specifically in relation to the operation of the Play Store app store.
The European Commission’s sanction against Google has been upheld by the Court of Justice of the European Union
Despite a slight reduction in the amount, it is still the highest in history: 4,125 million euros4.125 billion, up from the 4.343 billion euros originally envisaged in the European Commission’s decision.
The reduction of the amount by 5% is due to the final rejection of one of the elements contemplated by the European justice with respect to the allegations concerning the payments, which Google would make to some manufacturers to install exclusively its search engine.
What is sanctioned is the abuse of Google’s dominant position by offering its mobile applications and services in the form of an unwaivable and indivisible package to all those manufacturers who had access to the license to use the Play Store, and therefore were obliged to include in their devices both the Google search engine and the Chrome browser along with access to the app store itself.
From the regulatory bodies of the European Union, this practice is contemplated as abuse of dominant position thereby reducing the incentives for device manufacturers to install similar or equivalent applications from other competitors.
Since this process began in 2018 Google has implemented different measures in line with the requirements of Brussels such as the selection screen or the options that allow users to change the default search engine on mobile devices.
The CJEU ruling can be appealed so we will still have to wait for the resolution of such appeal by Google.