A Google emblem shows on a smartphone display and the European flag on a pc display.
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The European Union’s second-highest courtroom on Wednesday stated a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) effective imposed on Google by regulators needs to be annulled, siding with the U.S. tech large after it challenged the ruling.
The case stems from 2019 when the European Fee, the EU’s govt arm, stated Google had abused its market dominance in relation to a product known as AdSense for Search. This product allowed web site homeowners to ship adverts into the search outcomes on their very own pages.
Google acts as an middleman permitting advertisers to serve adverts by way of search on third-party web sites.
However the Fee alleged that Google abused its market dominance by imposing plenty of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party web sites, which finally prevented rivals from inserting their search adverts on these web sites.
The Fee fined Google 1.49 billion euros on the time. Google appealed, sending the case to the EU’s Basic Court docket.
The EU’S Basic Court docket stated Wednesday that it “upholds nearly all of the Fee’s findings” however “annuls the choice by which the Fee imposed a effective of” almost 1.5 billion euros.
The European Fee and Google weren’t instantly accessible for remark when contacted by CNBC.
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