€4.1 billion – that’s the price of requiring smartphone makers to bundle Google Search and Chrome as a condition for licensing the Play Store. The European Court of Justice just made sure Google pays every euro.
On Thursday, the ECJ dismissed Google’s final appeal against the European Commission’s 2018 antitrust decision. The original fine was €4.34 billion; a lower court trimmed it to €4.1 billion in 2022. Today’s ruling locks it in with no further recourse.
Why Android Pre-installation Deals Were Illegal
The Commission proved that Google abused Android’s dominance by tying its own apps – Search, Chrome, Play Store – together and paying manufacturers to exclusively carry Google services. This boxed out rivals like Microsoft’s Bing or Mozilla’s Firefox from competing for default placement on millions of devices.
Google argued the deals were pro-competitive because Android is free and open source. The courts disagreed: leveraging an open-source OS to lock in search and browser defaults is exactly the kind of leverage antitrust law targets. The ECJ’s press release calls it “anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system” – no ambiguity left.
The Broader EU Crackdown on Big Tech
This isn’t a one-off. The EU has hit Google with three antitrust fines totaling over €8 billion in the past decade. Last year alone brought a €2.95 billion penalty for ad-tech abuse. And the new Digital Markets Act gives regulators even sharper tools – Apple and Meta are already under investigation.
U.S. officials aren’t happy. President Trump recently threatened “100% TARIFF” on countries imposing digital services taxes, and the U.S. ambassador to the EU warned that over-regulation could exclude Europe from the AI economy. Meanwhile, the ECJ just proved that no amount of White House lobbying will stop Brussels from enforcing its rules.
Expect this precedent to accelerate DMA enforcement: if pre-installation deals cost Google €4.1 billion, what’s the price for an Apple-only App Store or Meta’s pay-or-consent model?
Source: Google loses fight over record $4.7B EU antitrust fine
Domain: cnbc.com
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