Google has lost its long-running fight against a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) European Union antitrust fine, after the bloc's top court upheld the penalty.
According to Bloomberg, the European Court of Justice ruled that Google's earlier defeat against the European Commission's penalty — over abusing Android's market power — should stand. Engadget reports this was Google's final appeal, and that the ruling upholds a record-setting fine originally imposed back in 2018.
The case centers on how Google used Android, the operating system that powers most of the world's smartphones. As the BBC frames it, regulators found the company used Android to "block" rivals, cementing the dominance of its own search engine and services on the vast majority of mobile devices.
Google pushed back on the decision. A company spokesperson told the BBC that the judgement "fails to recognise" the firm's "significant investment to ensure Android remains open."
Because this was the final level of appeal, the ruling brings a years-long legal battle to a close, leaving the multibillion-euro penalty in place with no further recourse for the company.
Why it matters: the decision confirms that Europe's regulators can impose and defend enormous penalties against the world's largest tech firms, reinforcing how the EU polices the market power of dominant platforms.