Google suffers setback at EU court over record US$ 4.9 bil. fine

Google has taken a significant hit in its legal fight against the European Union's antitrust penalty over Android's market dominance.

On Thursday, the Advocate General at Europe's top court recommended dismissing Google's appeal and upholding the reduced 4.7 billion U.S. dollar fine originally imposed in 2018.

Regulators found that Google abused its dominance by forcing device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome, and by rewarding them for exclusive installations, suppressing competition, and limiting consumer choice.

The original 4.98 billion dollar fine was slightly lowered in 2022 to 4.7 billion by the General Court, which Google then contested.