Europe’s top court upholds Google’s record $4.7 billion antitrust fine

Google has stumbled into fresh legal trouble after the European Court of Justice rejected the tech giant’s last appeal against the European Commission’s 2018 antitrust ruling on Android.

Back in 2018, the European Commission imposed a record‑breaking fine of roughly $5 billion on Google. A subsequent court decision in 2022 trimmed that amount to €4.1 billion.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager argued that Google engaged in unlawful practices to preserve its search monopoly, compelling manufacturers such as Samsung and LG to pre‑install Google Search and the Chrome browser if they wished to offer the Play Store on their devices. The company also reportedly paid hefty sums to secure exclusivity and prohibited those manufacturers from selling phones that ran altered versions of Android.

CNBC reported that Google has been contesting the decision for years, but the European Court of Justice has now dismissed its final appeal, declaring that the company has no further right to appeal and must pay the multi‑billion‑dollar penalty.

In a swift response to the court’s disheartening verdict, a Google spokesperson emphasized that Android remains a bastion of choice for users worldwide, while simultaneously championing the interests of thousands of independent developers and businesses. The representative pointed out that the judiciary overlooked the company’s substantial financial commitments to keep the operating system open, free, and accessible to all.

Meanwhile, a Swedish court has imposed a hefty penalty on the tech behemoth, ordering it to pay 14.3 billion kronor (approximately $1.5 billion) to Klarna for anticompetitive conduct. The ruling found that Google had deliberately skewed search results to promote its own comparison‑shopping tools, thereby disadvantaging PriceRunner, a Klarna subsidiary acquired in 2022. Google has rejected the judgment and intends to appeal, a process that could stretch over several years.

As the appeal unfolds, Klarna, a prominent player in the Buy‑Now‑Pay‑Later space, will have to wait for the final outcome before receiving any compensation. The protracted legal battle highlights the broader industry tension between large platform operators and emerging fintech competitors, a dynamic that will continue to shape market competition and consumer choice in the years ahead.