A new confrontation between Google and the European Union in court

A new confrontation between “Google” and the European Union in court

Google  is facing the European Union in court, in a war between them that began ten years ago.

Google is appealing the decision of the 2.4 billion euro ($2.6 billion) fine imposed on it in 2017, issued by the European Commission represented by the European Union's Antitrust Committee.

The decision was issued to prevent the company from displaying the advertisements of competing companies and exploiting its dominant position in order to illegally promote its ads, according to what was published by the global agency "Agence France Presse".

Today, Wednesday 12 February, the agency published that "Google" had paid the fine and changed its behavior, but it will strongly condemn the decision made by the European Union Tribunal, as false and unfair.

Google sent an email to the agency, writing, "We are appealing the European Commission's 2017 Google Shopping decision as a mistake of law, fact and economics."

Shopping ads always helped people to find products they were looking for quickly and so easily,also helped merchants reach potential customers, according to what was confirmed by the letter sent by "Google", and quoted by "AFP".

The European Commission will testify with the complainants, who accuse Google of stifling and monopolizing their business.

Traffic has dropped dramatically, creating a vicious circle with merchants who no longer see us as an alternative to Google Shopping, said Twenga's lawyer, Laurent Godfroid, a rival of Google Shopping, adding that Google has left only crumbs to its competitors.

More than 30 travel agencies, including TripAdvisor and Expedia, wrote to European Commission executive vice president and EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager on Monday, Feb. 10, complaining that Google was unfairly trying to enter the commercial advertising-for-hire business.

The appeal hearing lasts three days, with an unexpected decision for a year, after which the case can be brought to the highest European court, the European Court of Justice.

The European Union's case against the global search engine mirrors a similar lawsuit against the U.S. company "Microsoft", which lasted most of the 1990s and early 2000s, when the company witnessed a fine of 1.4 billion euros.

While Google will defend itself by saying that the committee has unfairly applied the arguments it had previously used and successfully against Microsoft, and that the company has the right to privilege the services it provides.

And Google will confirm that the European Union's case against it has failed, given the wild success of all the "Amazon" and "eBay", at the same time that it was held responsible for the "Google Shopping" service.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Fiesteger accuses Google of distorting Internet search results - 2015 (AFP)

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Fiesteger accuses Google of distorting Internet search results - 2015 (AFP)

A decade between the two parties

The case opens what will be a long season of hearings between Google and the European Union, with two more decisions on appeal to the Luxembourg court.

Since 2010, the war between the two parties began after the committee first examined accusations that the giant search engine "Google" was pressuring its competitors from the results to promote ads via "Google Shopping".

The European Union and the U.S. giant sought a negotiated settlement, but the Union abruptly changed course in 2014 after member states intervened and Margrethe Vestager became the EU's competition chief.

The former Danish finance minister, Vestager quickly became known for her relentless pursuit of U.S. tech giants. Apple CEO Tim Cook called it "political madness," according to AFP.

On March 20, 2019, the European Union's Antitrust Committee fined U.S.-based Google $1.7 billion for the same reason.

At the time, Danish Commissioner Margrethe Vestager explained in that decision that the company had taken advantage of its broad reach, occupying more than 70% of the advertising share in Europe since 2006.

She said the committee reviewed more than 200 detailed agreements with large sites that use Google's AdSense advertising platform and found at least one condition in each that harmed competition .

Google finance monopoly consisted of preventing sites from displaying competitors' ads on their search results pages, requiring them to keep the most profitable ad space on their pages for their ads, while specifying the requirement to obtain their written consent before changing the way any competitor's ads are displayed.