Google loses final appeal against fine of 2,420 million euros that Brussels imposed on him in 2017 for having abused its dominant position in order to confer a illegal advantage to its price comparison service (Google Shopping) compared to its competitors.
After a series of appeals that lasted 7 years, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has definitively ratified this sanction.
The judgment recalls that Union law does not prohibit the existence in itself of a dominant positionbut only its abusive exploitation. In particular, conduct by dominant companies which restricts competition on the basis of merits and which may thus cause harm to individual companies and consumers is prohibited.
“These behaviours include those which prevent, by means other than those which govern competition based on merit, the maintenance or development of competition in a market where the degree of competition is already weakened, precisely because of the presence of one or more undertakings in a dominant position,” the judgment states.
