The Silicon Valley tech giant's room for maneuver has run out. The Court of Justice of the European Union has brought to a close one of the longest and most costly legal battles in the history of the digital sector by ratifying the record fine of 4.125 billion of euros against Google. With this ruling, the Luxembourg judges make it clear that the company abused its dominance with the Android operating system to stifle its rivals and consolidate its own search engine.
This court decision is not an isolated event, but rather confirms the suspicions that the European Commission raised several years ago. The ruling completely dismisses the final appeal filed by both Google and its parent company, Alphabet, meaning that Court of Justice of the European Union It definitively vindicates the European Commission in its crusade to guarantee a fairer and more open technology market in the old continent.
A legal battle that has lasted more than a decade
To understand how we got here, we have to look back to 2015, when Brussels began to uncover the truth following several complaints from consumers and competitors. It wasn't until 2018 that the then-Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, announced an initial sanction exceeding 4.340 billion euros, a figure that would make anyone dizzy but which was slightly reduced in a previous instance due to the cancellation of certain loose ends regarding the distribution of advertising revenue.
The current ruling specifies that, of the total amount to be paid, a substantial part exceeding 1.520 billion euros falls directly on AAs the parent company, it is held jointly liable for the practices carried out by its subsidiaries, thus closing off any possibility of avoiding payment through legal or corporate loopholes within the structure of the American multinational.
The mechanism of abuse: Search, Chrome, and the Play Store
The court has found that the company used unethical tactics to ensure its services were the sole focus on mobile phones. Specifically, it forced device manufacturers to pre-install applications such as Google Search and Chrome If they wanted access to the official Play Store, this put any other browser or search engine at a clear disadvantage, since the average user rarely bothers to change the tools that come pre-configured.
It wasn't simply about offering a good product, but about locking down the ecosystem. By linking access to the Play Store (an indispensable tool for any modern phone) with the presence of its search engine, Google ensured a massive traffic of data and advertising that protected its position against alternatives that, in many cases, did not even have the opportunity to be tested by European citizens.
Market fragmentation and barriers to entry
Another of the hot topics in the ruling are the so-called agreements against fragmentationGoogle prohibited brands from selling devices that used modified or unauthorized versions of Android. If a manufacturer wanted to continue collaborating with the Silicon Valley giant, it had to comply and not invest in alternative operating systems that could overshadow it, which drastically limited innovation outside of Google's direct control.
The court emphasizes that these practices generated a status quo biasIn other words, a consumer inertia that is difficult to break. The judges have been emphatic in pointing out that in the digital world it is not necessary to prove that a competitor has been completely eliminated to confirm an abuse; it is enough to demonstrate that sufficient barriers have been erected to make it almost impossible for others to enter the game on the same playing field with the same rules.
The company's reaction to the final ruling
As expected, the news has not gone down well at the tech company's offices. An official spokesperson has regretted the rulingThey argued that Android has fostered freedom of choice and that they have invested billions to make the system free for everyone. According to them, they already made changes to their contracts in 2018 to comply with Brussels' demands, but the European court ruled that these moves were insufficient or came too late to compensate for the damage already done to competition.
This episode adds to the second million-dollar fine The group will receive this payment shortly after another payment for favoring its shopping comparison site was also confirmed. Luxembourg's message is powerful and clear: large platforms cannot use their power in one sector to colonize adjacent markets through abusive clauses that tie the hands of business partners and, by extension, limit what users can and cannot choose on their devices.
This court ruling puts the finishing touch on a long supervisory process that paves the way for future regulations in the European Union. The confirmation that the The sentence is final. And the fact that it does not allow further appeals represents a boost to the antitrust policy of the Community institutions, reinforcing the idea that no company, however large its presence in our pockets through mobile phones, is above the competition laws that govern in European territory.