Google Loses EU Antitrust Lawsuit, Record Fine Finalized

Fine of 7.3 Trillion Won

Google has lost an eight-year legal battle against the European Union (EU), in which the company sought to overturn an astronomical fine exceeding 7 trillion won.

On July 2 (local time), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) announced, "We dismiss the appeal filed by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the ruling of the EU General Court," adding, "The fine imposed for Google's abuse of its dominant position in relation to the Android operating system (OS) has been finalized."

In the first trial, Google managed to reduce the fine from 4.343 billion euros (about 7.67 trillion won) to 4.125 billion euros (about 7.29 trillion won), but failed to avoid the penalty. This is the largest fine ever imposed by the EU to date.

The European Commission imposed the penalty in 2018, stating that Google had excluded competitors by requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its search engine and Chrome browser as a condition for including its app store, Google Play.

Google argued that Android users were not forced to use Google apps and could download other apps with a single tap, but this argument was not accepted.

In 2017, the EU imposed a fine of 2.4 billion euros (about 4.2 trillion won) on Google for favoring its own service, Google Shopping, in its search engine. In 2019, the EU fined Google 1.5 billion euros (about 2.6 trillion won) for providing its search function and attaching ads to third-party websites.

Last year, the EU imposed a fine of 2.95 billion euros (about 5.2 trillion won) on Google for abusing its market dominance as an intermediary between websites and advertisers, giving its ad exchange, AdX, a competitive advantage.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.