The decision reduced the first fine against Google to €4.12 billion, an achievement that had no adverse effects on the premarket trading of Google stock.
Reuters reports that the General Court of the ECJ has largely upheld a ruling by EU antitrust authorities against Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) division. Google failed in its attempt to overturn an approximately €4.34 billion fine imposed by the EU executive commission in 2018 after it was discovered that it had abused its market dominance. However, the court did reduce the penalties by 5% since it disagreed with the regulator’s determination on one point.
The court ruled that Google did place “unlawful limitations” on Android mobile phone manufacturers and network operators in order to increase the search engine’s market dominance. It noted that some of its reasoning differs “in certain instances” from that of the commission and decreased the penalties by 5% to €4.125 billion.
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The court ruled that a fine of 4.125 billion euros should be imposed on Google “in order better to reflect the magnitude and duration of the infringement.” That’s a little less than the original 4.34 billion euro fine, and the court claimed that their justification was different “in certain ways” from that of the commission. Massive fines have been levied by the EU antitrust regulator against tech behemoths like Google, Intel, and Qualcomm.
Google’s response, Google stock optimism
“We are unhappy that the court did not completely overturn the verdict,” Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOG) stated in response to the court’s ruling. “Android has increased choice for everyone, not decreased it, and supports thousands of globally and locally successful enterprises.”
The business has argued in the past that the availability of low-cost phones made possible by the free and open-source Android operating system has increased competition between Apple and its main rival. Even more so than Apple’s iOS, Android is the most widely used smartphone OS. Google stock increased a little before the market opened.
Featured Image- Megapixl @Alexeyboldin
Author Jowi Kwasu 
