EU court largely upholds $4-bn fine on Google for Android OS antitrust

A top court largely rejected Google’s appeal of a record European Union antitrust fine imposed for throttling competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system. It marks another win for EU regulators taking a global lead in controlling the power of big tech companies.

The European Court of Justice’s General Court mostly confirmed a 2018 decision by the EU’s executive Commission to slap Google with a fine of more than 4 billion euros (USD 3.99 billion).

“In order better to reflect the gravity and duration of the infringement,” it’s appropriate to give Google a fine of 4.125 billion euros, the court said. That’s slightly lower than the original 4.34 billion euro penalty, with the court saying its reasoning differed in certain respects from the commission’s.