Google has lost its final appeal against one of the largest antitrust penalties in European history, after the European Union's highest court upheld a fine of around €4.1 billion over the company's Android mobile operating system.
The ruling
The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc's top court, dismissed Google's challenge, CNBC reported, confirming the penalty and closing off the company's remaining avenues of appeal. The decision followed the earlier, non-binding opinion of a court adviser who had recommended that the appeal be rejected — guidance the court usually, though not always, follows.
How the case unfolded
The dispute dates back to 2018, when the European Commission fined Google €4.34 billion — then the largest antitrust penalty it had ever imposed — for what it called illegal restrictions built around Android, the world's most widely used mobile operating system, according to the Commission. Google appealed to a lower EU court, the General Court, which in 2022 largely backed the Commission's findings but reduced the fine slightly, to about €4.125 billion. Google then took the case to the Court of Justice for a final say.
What Google was found to have done
Regulators concluded that Google, part of Alphabet, had abused Android's dominant position to protect and strengthen its grip on internet search. The Commission pointed to several practices: requiring phone makers to pre-install Google's search app and its Chrome browser as a condition of licensing the Play Store; paying some manufacturers and operators to install Google Search exclusively; and using agreements that stopped manufacturers from selling devices running rival, modified versions of Android.
The core objection was that Google leveraged control of a popular operating system to entrench its search engine, making it harder for competitors to reach users.
Google's position
Google has consistently rejected that characterization, arguing that Android has expanded choice rather than limited it. The company has said that the free, open model of Android lowered costs for consumers and manufacturers and fostered competition among device makers and app developers, and it challenged the Commission's economic reasoning during the case. Google had already altered some of its Android licensing practices in Europe in response to the original decision, including allowing manufacturers to license its apps separately.
Why it matters
The judgment cements one of the EU's landmark actions against a major US technology company and reaffirms a principle at the heart of European competition policy: that a company dominant in one market may not use that position to shut out rivals in another. It also comes as the EU increasingly relies on its Digital Markets Act, which sets rules for large "gatekeeper" platforms up front rather than through long investigations after the fact. For Google, the ruling ends a legal saga stretching back years — even as regulators and courts on both sides of the Atlantic continue to scrutinize its wider business.
