(Reuters) – Google on Wednesday won a legal challenge against a €1.49 billion ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine imposed by the European Union, while chipmaker Qualcomm failed to overturn a penalty.
The rulings highlight the uneven record of the outgoing head of the European Union’s Antitrust Service, Margrethe Vestager, in defending her crackdown on big tech in court. Last week achieved two important victories: cagainst Google in a separate case and against Apple’s tax deal with Irish authorities.
In a decision from 2019The European Commission said Google, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL)had abused its dominant position to prevent websites from using intermediaries other than its AdSense platform to provide search ads. The practices it described as illegal took place between 2006 and 2016.
The General Court of the European Union, which is part of the Court of Justice of the European Union, largely agreed with the EU competition watchdog’s assessments of the case but quashed the fine, saying the Commission had failed to take into account all relevant circumstances.
“The Commission has also failed to demonstrate that the clauses in question were, first, capable of deterring innovation, second, capable of helping Google to maintain and strengthen its dominant position in the national online search advertising markets in question and, last, capable of harming consumers,” the judges said.
Google said the case involved a narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publisher websites.
“We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has acknowledged errors in the original decision and annulled the fine,” the company said in an email.
The Commission, which can appeal to the European Court of Justice on points of law, said it would study the ruling and reflect on possible next steps.
The AdSense fine, one of a trio of fines that have cost Google a total of €8.25 billion ($9.18 billion), was triggered by a complaint from Microsoft in 2010.
In the case of Qualcomm, the US chipmaker only managed to convince the General Court to reduce its antitrust fine from €242 million to €238.7 million.
The judges rejected all of their arguments. The Commission imposed the fine in 2019, alleging that Qualcomm sold its chips below cost between 2009 and 2011, in a practice known as predatory pricing, to hamper British phone software maker Icera, now part of Nvidia.
The Commission said it had also taken note of that decision.
Qualcomm, which can appeal to the European Court of Justice, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
