Google wins £1.3bn case against EU ruling over ad product

Google has overturned a nearly €1.5bn (£1.3bn) EU fine related to its AdSense advertising platform in a win for the tech giant following two major fines.

The General Court has found “errors” in the European Commission’s 2019 assessment of Google’s advertising contracts with publishers.

Europe’s second highest court, based in Luxembourg, has annulled the fine after ruling that Google’s advertising contracts did not prove abuse of its dominant position, deterring innovation, or harming consumers.

The 2019 fine was sparked by complaints over online advertising contracts, including Politco owner Axel Springer and other media groups, who are now suing Google for damages in a Dutch court.

Google said the case was about a narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers’ websites. It has previously described the Commission’s ruling as “quasi-criminal”.

The company said on Wednesday: “We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the Commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognised errors in the original decision and annulled the fine.”

The EU Commission, which can now appeal to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), said it is considering its next steps.

For now, however, it is one less headache for Google, which has been increasingly scrutinised under the EU’s regulatory microscope, amid a firm clamp down on Big Tech by outgoing EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.

Google failed to overturn a €2.4bn (£2bn) EU fine earlier this month over its shopping comparison service. It is still battling its record €4.3bn (£3.6bn) fine from the EU’s top court over its Android smartphone operating system.

Google’s lucrative online advertising business last year raked in nearly $240bn (£183bn).

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority also recently published provisional findings that said it believed Google’s self-preferencing of its own online ad exchange might be harming thousands of UK advertisers and publishers. 

And the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is accusing its parent company, Alphabet, of monopolising digital ad technology. It has called for a breakup of the tech behemoth.

“No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they’re effective,” Google has said, denying the allegations.