European Union: Google loses appeal regarding EUR 2.42 billion fine for abuse of dominance regarding comparison shopping service

On 10 November 2021, the General Court of the European Union upheld the fine of EUR 2.42 billion by the European Commission (EC) against Google for violating EU antitrust rules. The court ruled, that Google did indeed abuse its dominance in the search engine market by self-preferencing its own comparison shopping services over those of competitors. Google did this by directing traffic from its general search engine to its comparison shopping service. This was achieved by placing its own comparison shopping service high up in the search results while demoting rivals' services with the help of algorithms. It was concluded that Google not only has a dominant position in the general internet search market but also abused this dominance which is a violation of EU antitrust laws. This behaviour, the court ruled, has harmful effects on competition. The anti-competitive behaviour can further also not be objectively justified by Google. As a consequence, the fine of EUR 2.42 billion is upheld.