Google has lost most of the first round of its battle to overturn a record $4.3 billion European Union antitrust fine that dealt a blow to the core of the U.S. tech giant’s hold over the Android mobile phone ecosystem. From the report: In a push from EU antitrust chief Margret Vestager, the judges upheld the vast majority of the European Commission’s arguments, but reduced the fine to €4.1 billion after finding flaws in some of the regulator’s analyzes and that Google’s right to a fair hearing had been partially violated. “The General Court largely upholds the Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on Android mobile device manufacturers and mobile operators in order to strengthen the dominant position of its search engine,” the EU court, based in Luxembourg, said in a statement. The Android case is one of three decisions that have been central to Vestager’s attempt to curb Silicon Valley’s growing dominance. It fined Alphabet’s Google more than €8 billion and has since launched new investigations into the company’s alleged control over digital advertising.
Google has failed in court to overturn a record EU fine
