Google on Thursday lost its last bid to overturn a record-breaking $4.7 billion antitrust fine from the European Union, the latest blow as overseas regulators seek to crack down on Big Tech.
The EU’s top court dismissed Google’s appeal of a 2018 European Commission ruling accusing it of anti-competitive practices, specifically attacking its promotion of Google Search and Chrome on Android devices.
“The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against that judgment of the General Court, thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them, as revised by the General Court, for their anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system,” the EU Court of Justice said in a statement Thursday.
Shares in Alphabet, which owns Google, fell 1.3%.
Google has been appealing the landmark decision, which argued the Silicon Valley tech giant abused its massive share of the smartphone market by making its apps pre-installed on Android devices.
Google has no further ability to appeal the decision, ending an eight-year-long court battle.
“Android provides more choice for everyone and supports thousands of businesses. This judgment fails to recognize our significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free,” a Google spokesperson told The Post in a statement.
“In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers.”
Google has tried to stave off the Commission’s antitrust allegations by allowing Android users to switch between search engines and browsers, instead of being stuck with only Google apps.
But the 4.1 billion euro fine – which was lowered from an initial 4.34 billion euros – is just one of several anticompetitive complaints the EU has lodged against Google over the past decade.
The European Union last year slapped Google with a 3 billion euro, $3.45 billion, penalty for alleged self-preferencing practices in its lucrative advertising technology business.
President Trump has railed against European regulators’ attempts to reel in Big Tech, accusing the body of overreach and threatening to retaliate.
Last month, he told The Post he warned French President Emmanuel Macron to ditch a 3% tax on US tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Apple or face 100% tariffs on French wine.
Trump later wrote in a Truth Social post that he would impose a “100% TARIFF” on any country that hits US firms with a digital services tax – saying the new levy “will supersede Trade Deals made with the Country.”
European countries including the UK, Spain, Italy, Austria and Denmark have also adopted a digital service tax.
