Europe Pledges Further Action On The Platforms After Court Upholds Fine
The European Commission has said it will continue to use “all tools at its disposal” to address the impact of the tech platforms on businesses and consumers after a European court upheld a €2.4 billion fine against Google for abusing its market dominance in general search.
Welcoming the European Court of Justice’s judgement this week, the Commission said that it delivered “the clear message that Google’s conduct was unlawful and it provides the necessary legal clarity for the market.”
Today’s @EUCourtPress judgment is good news. @Google was displaying its own service at/near the top of the 1st search results page, irrespective of its relevance, while demoting rival services to pages where they were hardly seen. It’s unlawful, and it’s unfair for 🇪🇺 consumers. https://t.co/xudN7UKZ95
— Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) November 10, 2021
Google was displaying its own service prominently at or near the top of the first search results page, irrespective of how good or relevant it was, while rival services were demoted to page four or lower, where they were not even seen, the Commission said in a statement.
“As digital services have become omnipresent in our society nowadays, consumers should be able to rely on them in order to make informed and unbiased choices,” it added.
“The Commission will continue to use all tools at its disposal to address the role of big digital platforms on which businesses and users depend to, respectively, access end users and access digital services.
“Antitrust enforcement goes hand in hand with the EU’s legislative action to address specific issues going beyond competition law.”